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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



WHY 



SHOULD 



PRIESTS 



WED? 



By J.^Q 



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" So dear to heaven is saintly cliiistity 
That, where a soul is found sincerely so 
A thousand liveried angels lacljy her/' 




A. E. COSTELLO, 
1888. 






Copyright, 1888, 



;•/ 



PREFACE 



This book would never^ in all probability, have been 
published, were it not for the recent appearance of 
an immoral and untruthful work 'compiled by a Protes- 
tant minister, who has plenty of capital at his back to 
circulate his slanderous brochure. Therefore this task 
was undertaken, in the cause of truth and morality, 
and without the slightest suggestion from any eccle- 
siastic. 

The subject of clerical celibacy has been many times 
handled by priests and laymen who have been as distin- 
guished for their learning as they have been remarkable 
for their piety. In these pages will be found a clear, 
concise statement of the case. We have not written the 
book for controversialists, or for any particular class in 
the community, but for the public generally. Our ob- 
ject has been to satisfy inquirers who have not the leisure 
or the opportunity to peruse bulky volumes. 

Unlike our opponents, we have given our authorities 
for every statement we have made, and we have asserted 
nothing at second hand. Time and again the teachings 
of the Catholic Church have been reviled and malicious- 
ly misrepresented. Charges the most libellous and 
atrocious have been made againt that divine institution 
which has been the bulwark of civilization— charges 



I \ Preface. 

which bring their own refutation, and which no intelli- 
gent mind could receive or believe. The mam intention 
of such opponents has been to inflame the people 
against the Catholic Church, and not to ascertain where 
error lies or in what consists the truth. 

This book appeals to the people. It is written for the 
people. Our researches have been conducted with 
patience and sincerity, to bring together all that has 
been honestly urged against the practices of clerical 
celibacy and confession, and all that it is necessary to 
state in favor of those practices for the impartial consid- 
eration of the public. 

Clerical celibacy and confession have ever been the 
especial objects of Protestant attacks. But the same 
amount of talent and the like honesty of purpose have 
not been exercised in making the attacks as in meeting 
them. The brightest and keenest intellects of Christen- 
dom have cultivated the science of moral theology, 
bringing to the task years and years of previous study of 
Holy Scripture, canon law, dogmatic theology, and the 
whole circle of human knowledge. Thousands and 
thousands of such commentaries have already appeared, 
and he would be rash indeed who would insolently style 
all this great labor '' ridiculous study. ^^ As to Confession, 
if the laws of the Church and the exhortations of 
theologians be observed, nothing can be conceived more 
conducive to spiritual progress than that Sacrament. 

We have largely quoted from Protestant writers to 
sustain our proposition that clerical celibacy is ab- 



Preface. v 

sohitel^ necessary to the welfare and purity of any 
religion. We have given high historical authorities for 
the fact that all nations- in all times have recognized 
its efficacy. The Russian, the Greek, and the Protes- 
tant Churches, by rejecting the practice, have lowered 
the standard of morality in the countries in which they 
prevail, and we have proved it by citations from the 
works of impartial witnesses. 

We have regretfully printed the last chapter, because 
the contemplation of the frailties of human nature is 
saddening. Our adversaries, however, have challenged 
us pointedly in this respect, and in answering it we have 
departed from the rule of our abler predecessors. But 
it is the truth, and such a terrible array of facts ought 
to make our enemies forever hold their peace. 

In the last published work we have referred to as 
attacking the Catholic religion through its priestly 
celibacy and its confessional, the reverend author 
quotes only a few instances of unchastity, and these are 
threadbare examples. When a man puts on the clerical 
garb, he does not at the same time put on infallibility 
or impeccability. But that garb ought to make him 
better than other men. We have proven everywhere, 
but most conclusively in the last chapter, that there is 
far less to be said against the Catholic priest who is a 
celibate, than there is against his Protestant ministerial 
brother who is married. 

J. C, 

March, 1888. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

Preface, ----- iii 

CHAPTER I. 

Reason and Rule, -- 1 

Specious Protestant Arguments — Sacrifice and Priest- 
hood — Protestantism a mere System of Ethics — 
Early Popes and Councils. 

CHAPTER n. 

Objections and Responses, - 10 

Father Perrone's Answers to the Arguments in Favor 
of a Married Clergy — Scandals that never Existed. 

CHAPTER HI. 

Chastity in all Ages, 40 

Revered in Pagan as well as in Christian Times — 
Honors paid to Widowhood — Second Marriages not 
Favored — Priestly Celibacy Enjoined in every 
Nation. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Dignity of the Priesthood, - - - - - - 52 

Count Joseph De Maistre Proves the Practice and 
Efficacy of Clerical Celibacy — Why there were 
Married Priests in Apostolic Times — Testimonies 
from various Sources. 



VI ii Contents, 

CHAPTER V. 

Page. 
Curbing the Passions, 08 

Voluntary Austerities among the Manicheeans, Budd- 
hists, and Brahnians— Lessons to Protestants — 
Monasteries and Nunneries— Their Early Establish- 
ment and Mairuificent Work. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Confessional, 78 

Bitter Attacks upon it by Protestants — Ignorant and 
Fanatical Controversialists— A Divine Institution — 
Rules of the Church in Confessing Women and 
Children— The Moral Theology Side of the Questior 

CHAPTER VII. 

SCHISMATICAL CHURCHES, - 92 

The Greek, Russian, Armenian, Coptic, and others — 
All have Married Priests and consequently a low 
Condition of Morals — Mere Puppets of the Govern- 
ment. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Russian Church, 10? 

Its Great Wealth — Divided into Sects — Marriage 
among its Clergy is a Hindrance to Sanctity and 
Zeal — Priests Living in Luxury and Despised by the 
People — Inclined to Protestantism. 

CHAPTER IX. 

How Protestantism " Reformed ", - - - - 114 
Deplorable Effects of Luther's Attacks on Clerical 
Celibacy — Society in Germany Uprooted — A Fright- 
ful Reign of Immorality — What Dr. Dol linger says. 

CHAPTER X. 
The Married Minister, 128 



Contents. ix 

PAGE. 

Contrasted with the Celibate Priest — Christ alone is 
the Catholic's Spouse— Risks of the Protestant 
Clergyman — His Follies and his Luxurious Life in 



England. 



CHAPTER XI 



Family, Property, and Simony, ----- 142 
A Great Moral Question as it Appears in England — 
Married Ministers Fly from the Sick — Prpviding for 
one's Relatives — Sacking the Monasteries — The 
Malthusian Theory — The Protestant Church Hated 
by the Masses. 

CHAPTER XH. 

Marriage and Divorce, -153 

Laws of the Church and State — Marriage Honored and 
Revered by Catholics, but lightly Regarded by 
others — Christ Forbids Divorce — Advice of the 
Church to those about to Marry. 

CHAPTER Xni. 

Sensational Slanders, 176 

The Latest and Worst Attacks on Catholic Sacraments 
— Ridiculous Allegations about the Confessional and 
Seminaries — A Brilliant List of Converts to Cathol- 
icity Refutes the False Charges — Ignorance and 
Mendacity. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Ministers w^ho have Erred, - - - - - - 193 

'ILook on this Picture and on this " — A Partial List 
of Protestant Clergymen who have given Scandal — 
An Argument for Clerical Celibacy — Broken Mar- 
riage Vows. 



CHAPTER I. 
Reason and Rule. 

Specious Protestakt Argument — Sacrifice a:n"d 
Priesthood — Protestantism a mere System of 
Ethics — Early Popes akd Councils. 

Many works have been written against tlie celibacy of 
the clergy of the Catholic Church. Most of them are 
of a scurrilous nature^ and the alleged facts they con- 
tain have been drawn from the writers^ imagination. 
It is not necessary to notice such literature. Abuse is 
always a weak argument, nay, it is no argument. 

Every now and then a Protestant, with misdirected 
zeal, denounces clerical celibacy, and rushes into print 
to prove that it has an immoral tendency, that it is 
contrary to the spirit of the age and to the natural laAvs, 
and has no foundation for its existence in the Bible, and 
no authority in the primitive Church. There are in 
every language many refutations of such declarations. 
In the interests of morality and religion it is necessary, 
even at this late date, to renew the argument, and to 
publish the facts upon which the Church founds her 
clerical celibacy. 

Pure Sacrifice, Pure Priest. — The reasons for 
the observance of continency could be put into a few 
lines. The exalted character of the Christian priest- 
hood requires that its members should not be trammeled 
by the ordinary ties of men. Priests, to fulfil the duties 



2 Reason and Rule. 

of their calling — the care of souls — should not be 
hampered by the obligation of caring for the bodies of 
family, relatives, or friends. The idea of the priestly 
sacrifice is totally opposed to the marriage idea. The 
purity of the sacrifice demands chastity in the priest. 
What is there more revolting to the mind, than the idea 
of a man rising from the embraces of a woman to 
perform the highest function of religion — the Holy 
Sacrifice of the Mass ? 

And here is the point of the whole controversy. If 
there were no sacrifice in the Catholic religion, there 
would be no necessity for a priesthood. But there being 
a sacrifice — the Holy Mass, the essence of the Catholic 
religion — there must be an agent, the priest, and, as 
already stated, the purity of that sacrifice imperatively 
demands that the agent or j)riest be chaste and pure. 

But the Protestant religion rejects the sacrifice and 
hence the Priesthood. Protestantism is merely a system 
of ethics. Its ministers are merely gentlemen who 
meet weekly or oftener a congregation which pays them 
to deliver essays on morality. In Protestantism there is 
no absolute necessity for clerical celibacy. The minister 
has no exclusive and important functions to perform. 
The Reformers, consequently, threw aside the Sacra- 
ment of Holy Order, and whereas the Catholic Church 
teaches, as an article of faith, a divine distinction 
between the Clergy and the Laity, Protestants either 
deny the necessity of any Ordination whatsoever, to 
enroll one in the ranks of the Ministry, or, if they 
retain the mere right of the laying on of hands, deny 
its sacramental character. Hence, there is no Priest 
in the strict sense ; — or, in a vague way, all Christians 
form part of an unordained Priesthood. This is shown 
by the practice of business men often taking the place 



Reason and Rule. 3 

of the recognized ministers^ to deliver the weekly 
homily. According to this system every man may be 
his own minister — he may work out his own salvation^ 
by merely perusing the Bible and believing in the 
Saviour. 

Pkotestakt Mikisters a:nd Catholic Priests. — 
A Protestant minister may engage in business. There 
are numerous examples of ministers doing so. The 
duties of the pastor are few and simple. The duties of 
the priest are many and exacting. The priest is paid to 
devote his whole time and attention to the spiritual 
needs of his flock. He. has the sacraments to admin- 
ister. The Protestant minister has none. Even 
marriage^ with the Protestant^ is reduced to a civil 
contract^ and a layman can ^^tie the knot.^^ But if 
the priest has a family to attend to^ how is he to find 
time to administer the Sacraments of the Church ? 
Could he conscientiously ignore sickness and distress in 
his own family, to go out and soothe and relieve the 
sick and distressed in other families ? Could he con- 
scientiously take pay, and not do what he has been paid 
to do ? Still more, Could he consistently attend cases 
of small pox, cholera, and other contagious diseases in 
his parish, and sow the seed of infection in his own 
family ? A married priest is open to greater trials and 
temptations than an unmarried priest. We wall show 
later on how the married priests of eastern churches are 
without influence, and how morality in the communities 
in which they live is at the very lowest ebb. 

The Greek an"d Latij^ Priesthood. — It must be 
said that the celibacy of the clergy did not become 
an established law in the Church at large until after 
many a stormy controversy. After a conflict lasting 
for ages, and at times convulsing Christendom, celibacy 



4 Reason and Rule. 

became a feature in the Latin Church. The Greek 
Church still permits the marriage of the lower orders 
of the clergy; deacons and presbyters retain the wives 
which they may have previous to ordination^ while 
bishops^ being recruited from the ranks of the regular 
or monastic clergy^ are held to their vows, and re- 
main unmarried. This diversity is one of the points 
of contention between the Greek and Eoman Churches. 
To trace the origin of priestly celibacy, the opera- 
tion of the causes that promoted it, the vicissitudes of 
the long battle between the friends and the opposers of 
the practice, and its effect upon the character and 
influence of the Church, is a task which requires vast 
research. The period of the so-called Eeformation 
produced numerous polemical works. Catholic and Prot- 
estant, on the subject. Among the most noted writers 
are Calixt — De Conjitgio Clericorum — Carove, and the 
Brothers Theiner (Altenburg, 1828). 

The materials for a history of celibacy lie buried in 
the writings of the Fathers and Schoolmen, in the 
acts of synods and the decrees of popes and bishops, 
in the mediaeval chronicles, in the civil legislation of 
all European countries, and in a hundred other obscure 
mines, which the student must patiently explore. 

Celibacy and I^^depekdence of the Church. — 
Celibacy contributed to the independence of the Church 
and aided the Sovereign Pontiffs in building up that 
compact, well-organized hierarchy, which brought so 
many blessings upon European society in the ages of 
transition from barbarism to modern civilization. 

The law of the western Church forbids persons living 
in the married state to be ordained, and persons in holy 
orders to marry. A careful distinction must be made 
betvveeu the principles on which the law of celibacy is 



Reason and Rule, 5 

based, and the changes which have taken place in the 
application of the principle. 

The reasons which have impelled the Church to 
impose celibacy upon the clergy are plain, simple, and 
cogent, and may be summed up thus: first, that they 
may serve God with less restraint, and with undivided 
heart; and second, that, being called to the altar, they 
may embrace the life of continence, which is holier than 
that of marriage. 

Biblical Quotations. — Protestants are very fond 
of quoting the Bible against Catholics, with and with- 
out provocation, and on all possible and impossible 
occasions. Well, let them take heed of what St. Paul 
says on this very subject of celibacy. Let the reader note 
that, unless otherwise stated, we quote throughout this 
work the Protestant Bible, King James version. In the 
seventh chapter of his epistle to the Corinthians he says:- 

'' But I would have you without carefulness. He 
that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to 
the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But he that 
is married careth for the things that are of the world, 
how he may please his wife.^^ 

Nothing can be plainer than this. PauFs clear eye 
and pure spirit discerned the superiority of the state 
of celibacy over the married state. Everywhere he 
emphasizes the fact that continence is preferable, that 
men and women serve God better in the unmarried 
condition. And if it is true of the layman, how much 
more so is it in the case of the priest, who has a whole 
parish or diocese for his family ? St. Paul was a man 
of the world. He spoke from experience and not as 
an enthusiast or a zealot. St. Paul further says : — 

^^ He that giveth his virgin in marriage doeth well, 
and he that giveth her not doeth better/'' 



6 Reason and Rule, 

St. John's Words. — St. John, in Eevelation, chapter 
xiv., verses 4 and 5, says : — 

" These are they which were not defiled with women, 
for they are virgins. These are they which follow the 
Lamb withersoever he goeth. These were redeemed 
from among men, being the first priests nnto God and 
the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile, 
for they are without fault before the throne of God.^^ 

What stronger argument can be needed than the 
words of Our Blessed Lord Himself : — " There are 
eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the 
kingdom of heaven^s sake. He that can receive it let 
him receive it."" Matt., xix. 12. This is conclusive that 
continence is a more holy state than that of marriage. 

Christian Antiquity Speaks.^ — The voice of Chris- 
tian antiquity is loud and strong, proving that the law 
of celibacy is no modern one. The Council of Trent, 
Sess. xxiv., De Matr. can. 10, severely denounces those 
who deny the superiority of celibacy : — " It is more 
blessed to remain in virginity or in celibacy than to be 
joined in marriage. ^^ Thus all Catholics are bound to 
hold that celibacy is the preferable state, and that it is 
specially desirable for the clergy. But it does not 
follow from this that the Church is absolutely bound to 
impose a law of celibacy on her ministers, nor has she, 
as a matter of fact, always done so. 

Unquestionable Purity of the Early Chris- 
tians. — Protestants assert that the decline and corrup- 
tion of the Catholic Church began in the fifteenth 
century only. They admit that she was good and pure 
before that, and admit as authoritative all her pronounce- 
ments. This being so, they must confess that her 
pronouncements on the celibacy of the clergy are just, 
reasonable, entitled to recognition as being made at a 



Reason and Rule. 7 

time when she was all that her Divine Founder intended 
she should be. For hundreds of years after the voice of 
St. Paul had been hushed on earth her Popes and her 
councils followed his teaching on this question. True, 
there does not seem to have been any Apostolic legisla- 
tion on the subject, except that it was required of a 
bishop that he should have been only once married. 
But yet, in those early times, there existed this very law 
of celibacy, although it differed from the present Western 
law in full force. Then, as now, the law had its 
opponents. There is nothing, good, bad, or indifferent 
in this world which has not its defenders and opponents. 
Even that which is manifestly praiseworthy will meet 
with objectors. Among the objectors to the law of 
celibacy in those early days was Paphnutius, the Holy 
Egyptian Bishop. 

The Opinion of Paphnuttus. — At the Council of 
Nica^a Paphnutius, it is said by some, opposed the 
attempt to impose a continent life on the clergy. Paph- 
nutius w^as a man distinguished, according to the con- 
current testimony of historians, for his great love of 
chastity. His presence at the Council is a disputed 
point, and the whole story has been called in question 
by critics. Nevertheless, he admitted, according to 
ancient tradition, that a cleric must not marry after 
ordination; this statement is confirmed by the Apos- 
tolic Constitutions, vi. 17, which forbid bishops, 
priests, and deacons to maiTy, while the 27th (al, 
25th,) Apostolic Canon contains the same prohibition. 
One of the earliest councils, that of Neocaesarea, held 
between 314-325, we particularly commend to the 
notice of Protestants. That council threatened a priest 
who married after ordination with degradation to the 
lay state. The Council of Ancyra (now Angora), in 



8 Reason and Rule, 

364, laid it down that a deacon could marry in one case 
only — viz., if at his ordination he had stipulated for 
liberty to do so. 

Thus it was the recognized practice of the ancient 
Church to prohibit the marriage of those already 
priests, and this discipline is still maintained in the 
East. 

The Change t^ the West. — A change was made 
in the West by the 33d Canon of Elvira (in 305 or 306). 
It required bishops, priests, and all who served the 
altar (positis in ministerio) to be, even if already married, 
in continence. The Council of Nicaea refused to impose 
the law on the whole Church, but it prevailed in the 
West. It was laid down by a Synod of Carthage in 
390 by Innocent I., 70 years later, while Jerome against 
Jovinian declares that a priest who has already offered 
Sacrifice for the people must always pray, and therefore 
always abstain from marriage. Leo and Gregory the 
Great, and the eighth Council of Toledo, in 653, renewed 
the prohibitions against the marriage of sub-deacons. 

So the law stood when Hildebrand, afterwards Gre- 
gory VII., began to exercise a decisive influence in 
the Church. Leo IX., Nicolas II., Alexander II., and 
Hildebrand himself, when he came to be Pope, issued 
stringent decrees against priests living in concubinage. 
They were forbidden to say Mass or even to serve at the 
altar; they were to be punished with deposition and the 
faithful were warned not to hear their Mass. So far 
Gregory only fought against the corruption of the 
times and it is mere ignorance to represent him as hav- 
ing instituted the law of celibacy. But about this time, 
a change did occur in the Canon law. A series of 
synods, from the beginning of the twelfth century, 
declared the marriage of persons in Holy Orders to be 



Reason and Rule. 9 

not only unlawful, but invalid. With regard to persons 
in minor orders, they were allowed for many centuries 
to serve in the Church while living as married men. 
From the twelfth century it was laid down that, if they 
married, they lost the privileges of the clerical state. 
However, Boniface VIII. , in 1300, permitted them to act 
as clerics, if they had been only once married, and then 
to a virgin, provided they had the permission of the 
bishop and wore the clerical habit. 

Council of Trekt. — The law of Pope Boniface was 
renewed by the Council of Trent, Sess. xxiii., Cap. 6, De 
Keform. The same Council, Can. 9, Sess. xxiv., again 
pronounced the marriage of clerks in holy orders null and 
void. At present in the West a married man can receive 
Holy Orders only if his wife fully consents and herself 
makes a vow of chastity. If the husband is to be conse- 
crated bishop she must enter a religious order. 



CHAPTER XL 
Objections and Responses. 

Father Pereone's Answers to the Arguments in 
Favor of a Married Clergy — Scandals that 
never existed. 

The learned Father J. Perrone^ of the Society of Jesus, 
in his '^ Praelectiones Theologicee/^ has clearly and cogent- 
ly set forth the arguments in favor of clerical celibacy 
and has fairly stated the objections against the custom. 
He says that the law was founded on the examples of the 
Apostles and that the practice was universal in apos- 
tolic times, and quotes as authorities TertuUian and 
St. Jerome. Although, he says, in the first years of the 
Church, celibacy was not recognized, yet it soon became 
its custom, and priests were forbidden to live with the 
wives they had married before ordination. He gives as 
authorities Origen, Eusebius, and Epiphanius. While 
there was a certain latitude in its eastern churches, yet 
in the Latin Church bishop, priests, and deacons were 
bound to observe the law. St. Mark enjoined celibacy 
upon the clergy of the Alexandrian church ; so did the 
Patriarch of Antioch upon his, and St. Epiphanius made 
it the custom. 

Indissolubility of Marriage. — And here it may 
be well to remark that the Church has ever and always 
held the marriage tie to be sacred. The dictum — 
'' Whom God has joined together, let no man put 



Objections and Responses. \ i 

asunder/" the Church has never swerved from. Father 
Perrone thus speaks of the Paphnutius incident: — 

^^In concilio autem Nicaeno agentibus potissimum 
Sedis Apostolic^ legatis, ut verisimile videtur^ proposi- 
tum erat Ecclesiae Romanas disciplinam extendere ad 
Ecclesiam universalem. Eestitit Paphnutius quoad 
illos tantum qui matrimonio juncti ad sacros ordines 
presbyteratus et diaconatus ascendissent^ quoad reliquos 
vero^ qui coelibes sacris ordinibus iniati essent, servandam 
censuit antiquam Ecclesiae traditioneni de non ineundis 
nuptiis. Ex his patet Mcsenam synodum Protestan- 
tibus minime patrocinari, cum ipsi contendant posse 
emendatorum suorum exemphim sacris jam ordinibus 
initiates inire conjugium^ in concilio autem statutum 
tantum est^ conjugia jam contracta ante ordinationem 
non esse dissolvenda/^ 

[In the Council of Nice, however, where it appears 
very certain that the delegates of the Apostolic See 
took an active part, it was proposed to extend the dis- 
cipline of the Roman Church to the whole Church. 
Paphnutius objected, in so far as regards priests and 
deacons who were married and in holy orders. As to 
the others, he thought that the celibates who were in 
holy orders ought to observe the ancient tradition of the 
Church, and not marry. From this it is cleai that the 
Mcene Synod does not favor Protestants in the least 
who contend that those already in holy orders could be 
made better by marrying. In this Council, however, 
it was laid down that a marriage entered into before 
ordination could not be dissolved.] 

'^ But,''^ says the learned Jesuit, '' those priests who 
had never been married were not permitted to take 
wives after ordination, and the law was affirmed by an 
oecumenical council. Although a univeral law of ab- 



1 2 Objections and Responses, 

solute continence was not imposed in the Nicene Synod, 
yet most of the bishops in their own dioceses enjoined 
celibacy upon their clergy. St. Eustace^ in his patri- 
archate of Antioch;, ordered the law to be observed ; so 
also St. Alexander^ while patriarch of Alexandria^ en- 
joined it upon the whole of Egypt^ notwithstanding the 
contrary opinion of Paphnutius, delivered in the Nicene 
Synod. ^^ 

Cogent Arguments. — Father Perrone deals with 
the arguments for and against clerical celibacy, and 
even at this late date nothing new can be added to one 
side or the other. He discusses the subject according 
to the scholastic method. The authorities he cites are 
overwhelming in their number and the excellence of 
their character. 

No example, says Father Perrone, could be given in 
the Latin Church of bishops, priests, and deacons who, 
with impunity, made use of their marriage rights en- 
tered on before ordination, or who married after receiv- 
ing ordination. " In the Eastern Churches, prior to 
the establishment in particular dioceses of the law of 
continence, some examples occur as given by our ad- 
versaries, which, however, may be safely passed over, 
just as others that are subjoined, since they are not 
pertinent to the question at issue. 

As to the special case cited regarding St. Gregory 
Nazianzene, the Senior, Stilting proves beyond perad- 
venture, by every kind of argument, against Tillemont, 
that he begot children from St. Nonna only before his 
consecration to the episcopacy, and that St. Gregory, 
the Theologian, was his eldest child. 

'The Synod of Ancyra, now Angora, speaks of those 
deacons, who, against their will, were forced to take 
ordination, as happened not unfrequently in that age. 



Objections and Responses. 13 

In fine, the Synod of TruUa permitted, contrary 
to the laws of the greater number, that deacons and 
priests might lawfully live with the wives they had 
married before ordination; which action, although a 
departure from the more rigid discipline, by no manner 
of means helps the position of Protestants. 

Suitable to the Clerical State. — Then he goes 
on to prove that the law of continence imposed on 
ministers is most suitable to the clerical state. 

That law, he argues, must be regarded as by far the 
most suitable to that condition, which brings with it 
holiness of life, conduces to the proper performance of 
sacred duties, and also wards off those impediments 
which cannot be associated with the methods of eccle- 
siastical life. Such, in fact, was the law of continence 
imposed on sacred ministers. 

" That the law of continence is holy by reason of 
its object no one will presume to deny who recalls to 
mind the fact that continence was repeatedly com- 
mended in the strongest terms, both by words and 
deeds, by Christ Our Saviour, and by the Apostles. 
Christ sanctified in his own person and recommended 
it (Matt, xix., 3.) in reply to his apostles, who were 
astounded at his remarks, concerning the marriage 
state, and said: ' If that be the case of a man with his 
wife, it is not good to marry. ^ He said unto them: 
'^ All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom 
it is given. There be eunuchs who have made them- 
selves eunuchs for the Kingdom of heaven. He that is 
able to receive it, let him receive it.^ The Apostle 
(Paul) also confirmed it by his own example, and 
throughout an entire chapter commended it to others 
(I. Cor. vii.). The other Apostles observed it, as 
shown from TertuUian and Jerome. This law, in fact. 



14 Objections and Responses. 

has its origin in their establishing^ and so far as the 
Latin Church is concerned^ it was imposed by the 
Prince of the Apostles (Peter) himself. Educated in 
this school, the Fathers of apostolic times and those 
who followed them all professed continence. Where- 
fore this institution has prevailed from that age of the 
Church which Protestants so highly extol. 

Excels in Holikess and Dignity. — It is no diffi- 
cult task to show how very suitable this law is to the 
state of those on whom it is imposed. In its very 
nature, and by the unanimous consent of the Fathers 
and of all peoples, as even our adversaries will not deny, 
it is very clear that this state, to which men are chosen 
for the work of the Lord, and sacred offices, and in 
which they are constituted, as it were, the mediators 
between God and men, far excels all others in holiness 
and dignity. Now, the sublimer and holier the nature 
of any state, so much the holier and sublimer manner of 
life is demanded. Hence it is clearly demonstrated that 
the condition of such should be that of celibacy, as the 
examples and institutes of Christ and his Apostles, and 
the institutes, and sense of all peoples prove. 

Besides, it is not less manifest that this law conduces 
greatly to the proper fulfilment of the duties annexed 
to the clerical state. The chief offices of the clerical 
state are to offer sacrifice, pray, supervise, teach, admin- 
ister the sacraments, care for the infirm and poor, and 
to perform like duties of religion and charity, which re- 
quire a man free from distracting cares about other 
matters, and one who can be the counsellor of all, their 
judge and father, and even the servant and minister of 
those whose needs and salvation he is bound to look 
after. ISFow who will deny that celibacy conduces more 
to the performance of such duties than wedded life ? 



Objections and Responses, 1 5 

Wherefore^ if the Apostle declares that " he who is with- 
out a wife careth for the things that belong to the Lord, 
how he may be pleasing to God, but he who is mar- 
ried careth for the things that are of the world, how he 
may please his wife, and is thus divided,^^ much less, 
surely, is the marriage state suitable to the Lord's minis- 
ters than celibacy. 

Calvin's .Ack^^owledgment.— Calvin acknowledged 
this fact in his commentary on St. PauFs words. 
^^ Therefore we must understand, '^ he says, ^^that the 
married man is divided, because he devotes himself 
partly to God and partly to his spouse ; he does not 
belong wholly to God. The sum total of Paul's argu- 
ment is that celibacy is better than wedlock, because 
there is greater liberty therein for the service of God.'' 

Add to this that celibacy, rather than wedlock, begets 
the homage and veneration of the people for the ministers 
of the Church, and the ministers themselves are better 
prepared for the administration of the sacraments with 
assiduity, and for the care of the sick and poor, as daily 
experience proves. Indeed, the office of a Christian priest 
carries with it nothing of mortality, but rather exhibits 
him to men as it were the living image of the divinity. 
In fine, imagine a priest who is a husband at the same 
time, and attach to him the name of husband and father, 
and you have, as it were, pulled him down from his 
heavenly state, nor can you discover anything in his 
conduct or life that will distinguish him from other men. 

Difficulties of the Married. — ''Finally, it is 
clear," says Perrone, ''that those obstacles to the proper 
discharge of sacerdotal duties which exist in wedded 
life, are entirely removed from the state of celibacy. 
For if any one will examine the relative duties of clerics 
and marriecl men, he will quickly discover the truth of 



1 6 Objections and Responses. 

what is said. The married man is hampered with in- 
numerable household economies and cares ; he must 
provide for the support of his wife and children ; he 
must educate his children^ and consult for their future 
lot in life^ and shoulder not a few other matrimonial 
burdens which serve to frighten off great numbers of 
men from contracting marriage. 

^^ Moreover^ if^ by the testimony of the Apostle^ (II. 
Tim. ii. 4,) no man being a soldier to God entangleth 
himself with the affairs of this life — so that he may be 
freer in the performance of his duties — there is no one 
who can fail to see that the celibate minister of the 
Church is free from all these burdens^ and that it should 
be forbidden him to engage in secular affairs^ to dis- 
tribute among his relatives ecclesiastical property^ and to 
constitute hereditary ecclesiastical dignities^ to the great 
detriment of the Church. That which he possesses of 
his own he can devote to the help of thepoor^ he can 
visit those suffering from the plague or other conta- 
gious disease^ and he may deny himself much^ wliich^ if 
he were married, he could not do. Suppose he were set 
over a parish in a small village or hamlet, where the 
poor people could hardly provide for him the necessaries 
of life? Suppose he desired to bear the light of Chris- 
tianity to fierce and barbarous peoples? How then? 

" If you reflect on these things ; if you consider the 
holiness of the clerical st^te, and the excellence of its 
offices, and then recall the grave disadvantages and 
impediments of wedlock, which the law of celibacy 
removes, yon will surely discover on what just grounds 
the same law of chastity is imposed on sacred ministers. ^^ 

Objectiois'S. — The following are the objections fairly 
stated against the laAV : — 

" 1. The origin of this law is of no help to Catholic 



Objections and Repsonses. 1 7 

celibates^ for the reason that the Apostle recommended 
continence not ahsoliitely , but because of pressing 
necessity, (present distress) as he himself says^ or on 
account of the ruthless persecutions by which it came 
to pass that^ for the three subsequent centuries^ there 
was hardly any one^ even a laic^ who cared to marry a 
wife ; when these persecutions therefore ceased^ that 
law which rested only on custom, should have also 
ceased to bind. 

''2. Again,, as Calvin well notes, men cannot forbid 
that which the Lord left free to do, especially in this 
case, as there can be nothing more iniquitous than to 
interdict marriage and oblige to continence those un- 
fitted for preserving it. 

'^ 3. Nor can clerics accept such a law and promise 
continence, since no one can undertake and promise 
that which is beyond his power. But such is conti- 
nence, which is a gift of God, and God has nowhere 
promised to bestow it on all desiring it. 

'^4. ScAiq-DALS AXD EviLS. — Heucc as many scan- 
dals and evils have sprung from this law of continence 
imposed upon the clergy as ever proceeded from any 
human institution or law. 

'^ 5. Had provision been made for clerics through 
honest wedlock, they could as well, if not better per- 
form their sacerdotal duties. 

'' 6. The first Christians, although joined in marriage, 
communicated daily, and spent much time in prayer. 

'' 7. Moreover, that division and solicitude, mentioned 
by the Apostle, does not withdraw one from the love of 
God, which is properly satisfied through the love of our 
neighbor, such as a wife is. 

^^8. As for succoring the poor, experience proves that 
the laity are far more liberal than the clergy, w^ho, when 



1 8 Objections and Responses. 

rich, spend their resources, aye, and even those of the 
Church, in procuring the best things of earth for them- 
selves, and in enriching their friends and relations. 

" 9. Certainly, Job and Tobias had each a wife, yet 
the former was the ' father of the poor,^ and the other, 
out of liis poverty, gave to the needy. 

Eespo:n'se of the Church. — Perrone replies as 
follows : 

^' 1. What is here stated by our adversaries is false. 
The interpretation put on the Apostle's words is wholly 
gratuitous, and plainly foreign to Paul's mind, who, by 
' present distress ' means either the inherent difficulties 
of wedlock, or the troubles of the time, and the short- 
ness of life, as he explains in verse 29, saying : ' The 
time is short ; it remaineth that those who have wives 
be as though they had none.' Since this is common to 
every age, the apostolic counsel and commendation is 
not to be restricted to the times of persecution, but 
relates to all time, as the Fathers of the church and the 
councils have so understood the words. 

'' Then,' too, our adversaries assume that this law was 
introduced through custom only, whereas, as we have 
said, it was sanctioned in the Latin Church, by the 
authority of St. Peter. 

^^ Thirdly, the falsity of the theory of our adversaries 
is shown from the fact that the examples which they are 
accustomed to adduce, of married bishops and priests, 
generally pertain to the very times of persecution, and 
from the fact that, on the cessation of persecution, the 
law of continence flourished at its best, even in the east- 
ern churches. 

2. The Church's Legislative Power. — '^ All 
power is given to the Church, for the edification of the 
faithful, and therefore, also the power of establishing 



Objections aiid Responses, 1 9 

laws for the good of the Church itself. Calvin himself 
will not deny that^, both by the divine and the natural law, 
it is allowable to hunt, speculate, and trade, and yet Jie 
strongly commends the decrees of the Church, whereby 
hunting, speculation, and commerce are interdicted to 
clerics. Therefore, even Calvin assenting, the Church 
can forbid that to men, which the Lord has left free for 
them to do. Still, the Church does not forbid marriage 
to men, but only in the contingency of their desiring to 
enter the religious state. This is optional to every one, 
and no one, therefore, is compelled by the Church to 
practise celibacy except by his own choice. The 
clergy, knowingly and willingly, obligate themselves to 
celibacy. KnoAving that this is the condition annexed 
to the ministry, they freely and of their own accord 
renounce the right to marry. ^^ 

3. DiYiJSTE Grace will Help. — '^ As to the right of 
clerics to bind themselves to continence, as something 
beyond their power, that depends entirely upon the help 
of divine grace. To those properly seeking it God 
never denies this grace, just as he never suffers us to be 
tempted above our strength, as the Council of Trent 
teaches, in the exposition of Paulas passage to the 
Corinthians. Who can say that that continence is im- 
possible, when Christ and His Apostles recommended 
and counselled it, and history furnishes us with so many 
illustrious examples in every age ? If marriage must 
be permitted to the clergy, because continence is beyond 
their powers, why, for the same reason, should not 
other marriages be permitted to those who, by reason 
of the absence or long-continued sickness of their wives, 
are unable to remain continent ? 

4. Those Alleged Scaxdals. — '^^ As for the alleged 
scandals among the clergy, arising from this law, whilst 



20 Objections and Responses. 

we confess^, with St. Augustine^ that ^ every profession 
has its black sheep/ and that the law is sometimes vio- 
lated^ since the ministers of the Church do not cease to 
be men, we yet deny that there have been so many or 
such great scandals as Protestants and libertines delight 
in alleging. These people imitate Vigilantius and 
Jovinian, who, according to St. Jerome, ^had no faith 
in the modesty of any celibate,^ and regarded everybody 
as like themselves. If in times gone by, especially in 
the middle ages, there were many such scandals, the evil 
must be attributed to the political constitution of that 
age, by which men without vocations were received into 
the clerical state. Many other causes, too tedious to 
mention, also existed. Still, Voltaire himself acknowl- 
edges that laymen, in every age, have been far worse, 
morally, than the clergy. Finally, we deny that, from 
the neglect of the law, any argument can be justly 
drawn against the law itself. The Church has always 
vindicated her authority against the violators of this law, 
and striven to correct their abuses and vices. Dare our 
adversaries impugn the matrimonial state, because 
the sacred obligations of wedlock have far oftener been 
shamefully violated ?^^ 

5. Eepeal will Is'OT Eefokm. — " Eepeal the law of 
continence, and you will still fail to do away with the 
vices and sins of this nature. Indeed, among those 
nations where ecclesiastical celibacy is despised, immo- 
ralities are more prevalent than are charged against 
Catholics. There, most of all, may be found the worst 
morals, the filthiest assortments of vices, unbridled lust 
in every class of society, and every kind of infamy and 
crime. It is enough to look to England and the other 
countries, where the so-called Reformation prevails, to 
realize of how little use is the restraint which our 



Objections and Responses, 2 1 

adversaries propose to prevent the occurrence of these 
evils. 

6. '' That the early Christians would not have com- 
municated and prayed better and more perfectly, had 
they been celibates, I deny. Whilst we do not say that 
these and the like are absolutely inconsistent with wed- 
lock, we still maintain that they can be performed much 
more holily and perfectly by the celibate/ or, as St. 
John Chrysostom says, ^ Prayer is rendered more exact 
through continence/ 'What is said of prayer may be 
understood as even far more applicable to other duties. 
Besides, there is a great disparity between the things 
done by a layman and the offices of a priest. 

7. Divided Solicitude. — ''That this divided so- 
licitude does not withdraw one from the love of God 
may be true as to its substance, but is altogether false 
as to its perfection. Even Calvin himself acknowledges 
this, as we have seen. 

8. '' This may be true of those who live unmindful of 
their peculiar state and obligations, but is false as to the 
rest. It will suffice to read the Ecclesiastical Calendar 
for one to know that in every age there have been in the 
Church of God innumerable saintly clerics, who have 
not only sacrificed all their possessions, but even them- 
selves, for the sake of their neighbor, and the poor 
especially. Passing over the examples of ancient times, 
let our adversaries read the lives of St. Charles Borromeo, 
St. Francis de Sales, the Venerable Bellarmine, and St. 
Alphonsus Liguori, and let them blush for shame. 

9. ''If married ecclesiastics were so many Jobs and 
Tobiases this argument might pass, but experience proves 
the contrary. The liberality of Anglican prelates is 
known, but if it be compared with the true liberality 
and hospitality of the monks and the former Catholic 



2 2 Objections and Responses, 

clergy of England^ we shall discover that the Jobs and 
Tobiases are to be found almost exclusively among the 
celibate clergy. 

Objection.— ^^ The Mosaic priesthood and Protestant 
ministers^ although married, properly performed and do 
perform the duties of their ministry/^ 

Reply. — '^I deny the parity. As to the Jewish priests^ 
the peculiar constitutions of that people required that 
they should not be celibates. For God had constituted 
an hereditary priesthood, and in other ways provided 
for the wellbeing of priests and people. But these 
causes, which pertained to religion and government, 
have passed away under the Christian dispensation. 
Besides^ the nature of that carnal law did not carry with 
it the perfection which is required in the Christian law. 
Still, continence was required of the Jewish priests, 
when they had to perform their functions. 

The Protestakt Miististry. — ^^As for Protestant 
ministers, I say that their office is far too petty to be 
compared with the duties of a Catholic priest. As a 
rule^' the most that they have to do is to talk once a 
week to the people. Their ministry does not demand 
that reverence which the Catholic priesthood does. 
Protestant ministers exercise hardly any authority over 
their people, as do the Catholic priests. Catholic priests 
are bound not only to say the divine office daily, but, 
moreover, must administer the sacraments to the sick 
and well. They must preach very often, must look after 
the needs of orphans, and widows, and poor of every kind, 
and must perform innumerable other duties^ from all of 
which Protestant ministers are exempt/^ 

Divike akd Natueal Law. — Perrone then lays 
down the proposition that the law of continence is op- 
posed neither to the divine law nor to the natural law. 



Objections and Rcspoiises. 23 

His proof is that — the law of continence is not opposed 
to the divine law, and that proof is easily gathered from 
the cited examples and exhortations of Christ and the 
Apostles ; also from the examples of so many men, who, 
from the remotest antiquity, were distinguished in the 
Catholic Church for their holiness and learning, all of 
whom were celibates. Such were Clement of Eome, 
Hernias, Ignatius, Justin, Cyprian, Ambrose, Basil, the 
Gregories, Jerome, Augustine, and a multitude of others, 
all of them celibates. 

" Surely, ^^ he says " no one will dare to speak of these 
as violators of the divine law. Moreover, these same 
holy men extolled in the highest manner the profession 
of continence and virginity, so that the Calvinist Bar- 
beyrac, who was bitterly hostile to the holy Fathers, 
inveighed against their excessive laudations of this 
virtue of chastity. Gibbon, too, also a Protestant and 
an unbeliever, did not hesitate to say that the Fathers 
made use of excessive, magnificent and altogether too 
splendid laudations of continence. (Vid. Gibb., chap. 15.) 

Not a Natueal Law. — ''That the sacred lavf of 
continence is not opposd to the natural law is shown 
from the fact that, if so, there would be some law of 
nature obligating each and every individual of the 
human race to enter matrimony. 

'' But no such law exists: — 1. Because in that event 
each and every one, male or female, poor or rich, hale or 
infirm, whether equal to the matrimonial requirements 
or not, slaves or freemen — all, I say, would be obligated 
by this law to contract marriage, which surely no one 
will say, nor do our adversaries contend, since it is 
absurd, and in many cases would be impossible; 2. 
Because, if such a law existed, the people would know it; 
legislators, philosophers, and those skilled in the 



24 Objections and Responses. 

natural law would recognize it. On the contrary^ so 
far from being regarded as violators of the natural law, 
the professors of sacred continence have been honored 
and esteemed in every age, as Henry Morin (Histoire 
Critique du Celibat) learnedly shows was the case among 
the Egyptians, Indians, Persians, Greeks, and Eomans. 
This indeed has been acknowledged by not a few of our 
adversaries, who trace the origin of celibacy in the 
Christian religion from an ideal mysticism which in the 
beginning of the Christian era prevailed about celibacy 
and continence. 

"^^ Since, therefore, there exists no law of nature 
obligating to marriage, we justly conclude that the law 
of continence imposed on sacred ministers is by no 
means opposed to the natural law.''^ 

Objectio:n'S. — 1. Against the first part of the pro- 
position: 1. God commanded all to marry. Genesis 
i., 28; 3. Words of Christ in Matthew^s Gospel, xix., 4; 
3. St. Paul to the Hebrews, xiii., 4; 4. Same Apostle 
in 1st Ep. to Timothy, iv., 1; 5. Also in 1st Corin- 
thians, vii., 2; 6. Same ch., verse 9; 7. See also 1st 
Timothy, iii., 2, and Ep. to Titus, i., 6; 8. The clear 
words of Paul in 1st Timothy, v., 14. 

Eesponse. — 1. The text of Genesis signifies rather 
a blessing and fecundity imparted to men. After creat- 
ing the great whales, etc., God blessed them in like 
manner, saying: '^^ Increase and multiply, etc.^^ I hardly 
think our adversaries wish to explain these words as 
referring to the obligation of marrying. Why, there- 
fore, do they refuse to understand in like manner what 
is said of the fecundity which they offer as an objection 
tons? 

The Words of Christ akd His Apostles. — '' But 
granting that it is not a blessing but a command, is this 



^/bjections and Responses, 25 

precept to continue for all time^ and to affect every 
ringle individual of the human species? This is what 
they never prove. On the contrary, it is clear from the 
words ^ replenish the earth/ that the precept regarded 
the beginning or the restoration of the human race, 
which ceases after sufficient propagation; otherwise, 
neither Christ nor the Apostles would have given the 
counsel of continence. 

^' 2. Christ here speaks of the indissolubility of mar- 
riage already contracted, not of marriage to be con- 
tracted. 

^ ^' 3. The Apostle here speaks of those who are married, 
and exhorts them to preserve their wedded life and 
marriage bed honorable and undefiled, because, he 
immediately adds, ^ whoremongers and adulterers, God 
will judge.' 

Heretics would coNDEM^ir Marriage. — ^^4. This 
means that there would arise heretics who would con- 
demn marriage as evil in itself, and coming from the 
evil principle; such as in fact were Ebionites, Marcion- 
ites, Manichaeans, and others, all of whom were con- 
demned as heretics by the Church. By no manner of 
means can it mean the Church, which Paul himself 
terms the pillar and ground of truth, which declared 
that marriage was good, and only enjoined celibacy on 
those who become priests, as something better and more 
suitable to their state of life. 

^^5. Means that every one should possess the wife 
whom he married, not whom he should marry, as is 
evident from the context. 

^6. ^ It is bettter to marry than to burn^ — that is, than 
to commit fornication. He does not burn who suffers 
temptation, but by resisting manfully and overcoming 
it he is rather crowned. The Apostle speaks concern- 



26 Objections and Responses, 

ing those who are free^ but not concerning those who, 
for the overcoming of temptation, must have recourse, 
not to marriage, but to prayer, fasting, watchfulness 
over the senses, and disciplining of the body, all of 
which helps and remedies our adversaries abhor as 
worse than dog or snake. 

Qualification's foe the Episcopate. — " 7. The 
Apostle says that a bishop should not be a bigamist, 
but not that he should be married. Otherwise, neither 
Timothy (to whom he writes) nor the Apostle himself 
could have been qualified for the episcopate. All an- 
tiquity thus understood the words of the Apostle. 

"^"^ 8. This is the meaning of the Apostle: — '^ I wish, 
that is, I prefer, that young widows and fornicators 
should marry and be mothers of families, rather than 
to live unchastely,' not that he would command them 
all to marry and forbid them to remain widows. But 
what has this to do with ecclesiastical celibacy? ^^ 

Second OBJECTio:Nr. — Against the other part of the 
proposition. Celibacy is opposed to marriage, which is 
commanded to all by the law of nature, therefore its 
(celibacy^s) profession is opposed to the natural law\ 
(1) Man is inclined by nature to marriage, (2) and to 
that end the difference in the sexes is ordered by na- 
ture. (3) The ancient philosophers taught this on 
these grounds: (a) Nature implants in man the desire 
of immortality, which man can only satisfy by the re- 
production of himself in the begetting of children, in 
whom the father, continues to live. (i) It is just the 
same thing not to give existence to an individual, when 
it can be done, as to take away the life of an individual 
already born — which is a most grave crime. (c) 
Every one must restore to nature what he has received 
from her; but nature has given existence to every Individ- 



Objections and Responses. 27 

iial; therefore, every one must restore to natare, when 
he is able, this existence by the procreation of another. 
Hence they always regarded the celibate as guilty of a 
grave infamy, and judged that he would be punished 
grievously in the after life, and they looked upon the 
childless husband as unfortunate. 

Eespoxse. — "1, Nature may incline a man to mar- 
riage, without, however, inducing any obligation to enter 
that state. 

" 2. The diversity of sexes enables one to marry if he 
wishes, but it does not put an obligation to marry on 
all. It is one thing to speak about the natural fitness 
of things, and another about the natural obligation. 

" 3. Some philosophers so thought, but on foolish 
principles. 

a) '' That does not show that the desire of immortality 
was implanted by nature. Such a desire affects the 
individual and cannot be satisfied by the life of his 
children, in whom only improperly can the father be 
said to live. 

h) The Bork akd U:n-bor]N". — ''There is a wide 
disparity between him who is born, and him who has 
not yet begun to live. The one who is born has ac- 
quired a right to the conservation of his life, which 
none can destroy without being guilty of grave crime. 
On the contrary, one not born has neither acquired this 
right nor can he acquire it, since as yet he does not exist. 

c) " The obligation of returning to nature that which 
is received can be only subject to the conditions of its 
reception. But since a father has given existence io 
his son, unbound by any obligation, neither is the son 
obligated to give this existence to another. False and 
foolish, therefore, are the principles which actuated the 
old philosophers.^^ 



28 Objections and Responses, 

The objection is pressed and discussed as follows: — 

" From physiology and medicine. 

^' 1. The instinct by which we are impelled towards 
matrimony is altogether irresistible or invincible. 

" 2. Hence celibates are peculiarly subject to many 
diseases of the body and (3) of the mind. 

Eesponse. — '' I deny the first point — since the almost 
innumerable number of celibates of both sexes, who, 
even by the acknowledgment of our adversaries them- 
selves, preserved an undefiled chastity, proves the falsity 
of the assertion. Nor forget that God assists by his 
grace those who sincerely pray for his help ; only an 
atheist or materialist will deny God^s conduct towards his 
creatures. If the argument of our adversaries were true, 
then the governments that favored religious celibacy 
were taking up the cause of so many hypocrites, and 
every license should be allowed to those who either 
cannot marry or who cannot make full use of lawful 
marriage. But who can bear principles so absurd and 
proceeding from unbridled lust alone? 

Physiologists akd Physicians agkee. — '' 2. I deny 
the second point — for the reason that the most cele- 
brated physiologists and physicians, who have thoroughly 
studied the matter, show the contrary to be the case, 
and further, because daily experience argues the falsity 
of the assertion. Very many celibates have lived to 
extreme old age in the best of health. Statistics show 
that longevity is peculiar to monks and religious — that is, 
to celibates — as was acknowledged by Bacon, Mahon, 
Galenus, and many others. Diseases are common to 
men of every condition and state of life, and not to 
celibates alone. Medical writers treat of diseases which 
are peculiar to men of every walk in life, and Hippo- 
crates and many modern physicians have treated of 



Objections and Responses. 29 

the diseases of married persons^ and have shown that 
that state is far more full of danger than any other. 

Mental Disordeks. — ''3. As for the mental disor- 
ders charged, how do they compare with the distress of 
mind to which the married are subject? What must not 
the married man bear, either from a quarrelsome wife, or 
a crowd of children with angry passions, disobedient, 
and bad ? He must battle with hunger and poverty, 
so that not a few of his kind repent of their rashness in 
ever marrying? So far from becoming morose and 
sad, experience proves that celibates are generally the 
most jovial and joyous of men. Of course, in a number 
of celibates, you may find some long-faced, miserable 
fellows, but that characteristic did not come to them 
from celibacy, but is natural to them. 

Another proposition. — " The law of continence 
imposed on sacred ministers, instead of being opposed to 
the well-being of society, on the contrary wonderfully 
promotes it.^^ 

Narrow-mi>tded Philosophers.— This proposition 
is directed against those narrows-minded philosophers 
and politicians who prate about the evils to society 
arising from ecclesiastical celibacy. These men would 
take away the liberty of the Catholic clergy, and subject 
them to the yoke of matrimony. 

This is how Perrone argues: — ^^That law must be 
said to conduce to the benefit of societj" and the advan- 
tage of the commonwealth, which brings indissolubility 
to families, and the propagation of the race ; which 
strongly promotes the cultivation of letters and the fine 
arts ; which, in fine, greatly promotes and enlarges the 
establishments of public beneficence and charity. But 
such is the law of continence. 

Devotex> to the PEOPI.E.— '' It is, indeed, by that 



o 



o Objections and Responses, 



means (celibacy) that the mmisters of the Churchy who 
are public ministers exempt from every domestic con- 
cern, can devote themselves wholly to the public advan- 
tage and well-being of their brethren and fellow-citizens ; 
whereas, if they were hamjaered by domestic cares, such 
as attach to matrimony, they would be little better than 
shuttle-cocks — compelled to ' hustle^ hither and thither 
in looking after their public and private affairs. Indeed, 
a married priest would pay more attention to his domes- 
tic concerns, than he would to the public weal. 

Freed from Domestic Cares. — " Priests freed from 
domestic cares are better fitted for the communication of 
religious and moral strength to private families, so that 
married couples may cling to one another with mutual 
love, — better fitted to consult for their peace, to re- 
strain them from vice and unbridled license and the 
like, which surely are more hurtful to propagation than 
all these inconsiderate marriages would seem to favor. 
Now, as on the strength and consideration of families 
depend the strength and conservation of society, which 
is made up of the aggregation of families, a celibate 
clergy conduces much more to the conservation and per- 
petuity of society than a married clergy. Again, as the 
well-being of individuals wholly depends on the well- 
being and happiness of society, of which they are the 
members, it is evident that the celibate ministers of the 
Church cannot promote the welfare of society without 
at the same time promoting that of every individual. 

I2!^TELLECTUAL AND MORAL PhASE. — "As to the 

intellectual and moral phase of the question, no sane 
man will deny that one who is wholly devoted to his 
calling and leads a sublimely excellent life is better able 
to secure respect and confidence, than one who is mixed 
up witli domestic concerns, and who leads no higher life 



Objections and Responses, 3 i 

than those whom he seeks to influence. Such a man is 
the celibate minister of the Church, who can devote him- 
self entirely, either to the instruction of youth in letters 
or to training their minds to piety and good conduct. 
The civic virtues and institution depend on these things, 
and are so much the more strengthened as the sacred 
minister is enabled to exercise the greater influence. 
This religious, intellectual, and moral institution extends 
also to the fine arts, to science, letters, and the whole 
life of the freeborn citizen. 

" That the institutions of benevolence and charity, in 
their origin and increase, depend either wholl}^, or at least 
in great part, on the celibate life of sacred ministers, the 
very nature of the subject makes manifest. For they, 
to whom the crowd of orphans, aged, infirm, and 
Wretched are intrusted, are looked upon in society as 
the parents and refuge of all, for the especial reason, 
that they are emancipated from all domestic and public 
affairs. By their very mode of life, celibate ministers are 
constituted the mediators between the rich and the poor, 
between the weak and the j)owerful, and collect from 
all sides the means by which they can assist the needy. 
The rich gives them help and the poor have recourse to 
them. One can hardly, if at all, conceive such of 
a married clergy, burthened with wife and offspring. 

Truly Prosperous Countries. — '' Lest any one may 
suspect that this is all talk, w^ithout any warrant prac- 
tically, it will greatly delight us to confirm every word 
of it by facts and examples. 

" In the first place, it is proven by public statistics that 
never did a kingdom or province prosper in population 
and Avealth, unless where there were Catholic celibate 
clergy. If Europe has reached that pinnacle of power 
^nd opulence which we behold, we must attribute all 



3 2 Objections and Responses. 

of it to so useful an ifistitution. It is enough to notice 
Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, Catholic Switzerland, 
Ireland ; and if you compare these with the countries 
in which celibacy is proscribed to the clergy, it will be 
seen that, other things being equal, they have far greater 
populations. This can only be ascribed to the celibate 
life of the Catholic clergy and the power of religion, by 
which means the laws of marriage are guarded, family 
ties strengthened, preserved, and increased. 

The Teainiistg op Youth.— '^ What shall I say of the 
intellectual and religious training of youth, for whose 
education the celibate Catholic clergy have opened free 
schools everywhere, so that no class of citizens are 
denied that instruction which is so necessary in civil 
society. Compare these literary institutes, which so 
much conduce to the well-being of society, with the 
schools of Protestants, and note the immense difference. 

Finally, by the indefatigable labors of the Catholic 
clergy, everywhere may be seen establishments for every 
class of the unfortunate, and, as the days go by, still 
more are being erected. See the hospitals, orphan 
asylums, insane asylums, institutions for the deaf and 
dumb, and the like. 

'' With the languishing and falling away of faith, and 
in civil commotions, have arisen those unbelievers and 
bitterest enemies of religion and society against the 
celibacy of Catholics. Yet to this class of men, gener- 
ally, lawful marriage is abhorrent, because they want to 
practice at will a celibacy of libertinism. Truly, a new 
reason offers itself to rulers and real politicians why 
they should defend so salutary an institution from the 
foolish invectives of such men, for it is ,the most fruit- 
ful mother and safest nourisher of so many benefits that 
accrue to society.'^ 



Objections and Responses, '^'^ 

Futile Objections. — Let us still further consider 
the objections against celibacy: — 

(1) Celibates defraud the commonwealth of almost 
mnumerable citizens; (2) The trials and disadvantages 
of celibac}^^ besides^ do no good to any one; (3) to very 
many, on the other hand, clerical marriages would 
bring much good, (4) and the clergy themselves would 
live purer and chaster lives, their children would be 
well instructed, Zachary and Elizabeth would live again 
on earth, and their offspring would emulate the virtues 
of the Precursor. (5) If this institution (law) were 
universal it would destroy society, and so it cannot be 
perfectk)n, but only the outcome of an insane and un- 
balanced mind, and such indeed is the profession of 
celibacy. (6) The Greek and Eoman laws forbade it, 
and marked celibates with infamy, and subjected them 
to severe penalties. (7) In fact, Protestant countries 
prosper whilst Catholic nations are wretched and de- 
serted, so that there can hardly be found enough men 
to till the ground, or mechanics, or artists, (8) the reas- 
on for which is found only in the great multitude of 
ecclesiastical celibates. (9) Hence the progressive spirit 
of the age no longer tolerates such an institution. (10) 
And so it has at length come to pass that memorials and 
petitions have been latterly presented to governments 
for its abolition, the success of which is hopefully 
expected. 

The real Facts. — This is how Perrone deals with 
these ten objections: — 

1. ^^ It is surprising with what unanimity so-called 
political economists a ad Protestants inveigh against 
ecclesiastical celibacy, as if it were the only ruin of the 
commonwealth, whilst, at the same time^ they ignore 
that other immense class of celibates who are the true 



34 Objections and Responses. 

cause of the evil occurring to nations from celibacy. 
Besides ecclesiastical celibacy we have the celibacy 
of the soldier, of the sailor^ of the philosopher^ of 
the servant^ of the libertine^ and if this great class be 
compared with the few ecclesiastical celibates^ it will 
be seen how ridiculous are the clamors of our adver- 
saries, which are simply the result of their hatred of the 
Catholic clergy, or rather of the Catholic religion itself. 
If they are sincere, why don^t they strike at the other 
class of celibates mentioned, by whom a vast human 
propagation is prevented, and who are the cause of so 
much unbridled lust and vice? Ecclesiastical celibates, 
even if they do in some respect defraud the nation of 
citizens, more than compensate for that, as we have 
seen. 

2. The Eeward of Virtue. — '^ The trials and disad- 
vantages of celibacy, if there be any, do this good to the 
celibate himself — that he will ' obtain the crown ^ ; they 
do good to all the Christian people, for whom the celi- 
bate denies himself; they do good to the orphan, the 
poor, the sick, in fact, to the whole of society, which 
derives so much benefit from the celibate, as we have 
proved. 

3. " Exaggerated and chimerical are plainly these 
alleged advantages from a married clergy, as may be 
seen in those countries where ecclesiastical celibacy 
does not exist. For instance, married priests among 
the Greek Schismatics and in the Empire of Russia are 
incredibly ignorant, commit simony in the administra- 
tion of the sacraments, rarely celebrate the divine 
mysteries, are held in contempt by all, and are only tol- 
erated for political reasons. Among Protestants there 
is far less respect shown for their married clergy, than 
is given by Catholics to their priests. English literature 



Objections and Respoiises, 35 

is full of hatred and contempt of the clergy of the 
Established Church, nor does the stage of the theatre 
spare them. 

4. An'GLICA.n' Clergy. — " This fourth objection is 
fancy,not fact. The same would come to pass among a 
married clergy, as is common to the married laity. Like 
causes produce like effects. Thus environment and 
circumstances would mould their actions. The married 
Anglican clergy do not show themselves so many 
Zacharies and Elizabeths, and their children are very 
far from emulating the virtues of the Baptist. So it is 
not wedlock that serves as the best remedy for inconti- 
nence, but a habit of chastity cultivated from childhood 
up. 

5. " This argument proves too much. If it were a 
valid one, it would follow that literature and the fine 
arts should be eliminated also, because, if all devoted 
themselves to their studies, commerce and agriculture 
would cease, and all would die of famine. 

6. '^ The Greeks and Eomans proscribed and punished 
the libidinous aud vicious celibates, but not those who 
became such for religion and virtue^'s sake. This we 
have shown, and the same is acknowledged by our 
adversaries, who maintain that the institution of celi- 
bacy had its origin, not in the counsels of Christ and the 
Apostles, but in the ideal perfection and mysticism of 
the Indians, Greeks, and Romans. 

7. Italiak Clergy. — ''This seventh proposition 
is false. Italy alone, which has more clergy than any 
other country, suffices to prove the falsity of the asser- 
tion. This country, in proportion to its area, is more 
thickly inhabited than China itself. If some other 
countries are less populous, this is due to other causes, 
common to Catholic and Protestant countries alike. 



36 Objections and Responses. 

8. ^^The true causes are : The vast emigration to 
foreign countries^ and the difficulties experienced by 
married people in providing for themselves and families. 
The fondness for luxurious living is another cause of 
the decadence in agriculture and the arts. Then^ too, 
licentious living is also a cause of decreasing procrea- 
tion, and to this add the military life of millions, the 
celibates in commerce and navigation, travellers, and 
the many engaged in the arts, who often renounce 
marriage altogether, or marry only in old age, when 
they have acquired a competence. Again, the many 
noble families, where, because of the primogeniture laws, 
etc., only the eldest marries, and the rest are forced to 
lead the lives of celibates ; the vast number of servants 
and slaves ; the natural disposition of so many men, who 
couldn^t for the life of them stomach the thought of a 
garrulous wife and a lot of noisy and blubbering children. 

9. The Spirit of Liceis^se. — '' If by ' spirit of the 
age ^ are meant licentious, unbelieving, and riotously- 
living men, good enough ; but not men of wisdom, 
gravity, and the true political economist. The former 
have never constituted the spirit of the age, but the 
spirit of license, and they have been despised and 
abhorred in every age. The spirit of such men is also 
antagonistic to the Catholic religion. The Church 
does not regard the spirit of the age, but that of the 
ages. In every age, however, the people have looked 
with favor on ecclesiastical celibacy. ISTever have the 
people desired a married clergy. Should any of their 
clergy become 1)01% vivants or give scandal, the people 
have asked . for their correction or removal from the 
ministry, and the substitution of better ones, but never 
have they urged that wives should be provided for them. 

10. An Absurd Petition. --^'^ These petitioners and 



Objections and Respoiiscs, 3 7 

memorialists for the abolition of celibacy were the few 
as compared with the many who opposed their designs. 
Their machinations have always been futile, even among 
Protestants^ and vainly do the}^ flatter themselves about 
a favorable issue to come. And these libertines never 
advert to the anomaly of asking the secular govern- 
ment to abrogate an ecclesiastical law, which is of 
Apostolic institution and has come down to us from 
the first ages of the Church.'^ 

The next difficulty the learned Jesuit sets forth 
as follows :— ^^ (1) It was this intolerant celibacy which 
impelled so many members of the regular and sec- 
ular clergy, in the 16th Century, to bring about the 
Beformation, and which carried with it so much ruin 
to society ; (2) to which add that celibacy in some 
measure renders the clergy outside the pale of society. 
In no way can they be persuaded to defend the laws of 
society. Hence it comes that this institution, so far 
from uniting the Church to society, rather estranges 
and separates it, and in truth makes it a state within 
a state. And since these celibate clerics acknowledge 
no bond of allegiance to their country and its soil, they 
are the more strongly enthralled by a foreign power, 
namely, the Eoman Pontiff. So it comes that, under 
the color of liberty and independence, the fatherland 
nourishes in priests so many enemies and traitors, or 
at least useless citizens, Avho care nothing for their 
country's weal and are unfitted for illustrious deeds. 
Hence the perpetual strifes between the priesthood 
and the government which afflict society. N^o matter, 
therefore, how this law of continence is regarded, it 
should be eliminated from sound politics. ^^ 

Eefgrmatigx ok License. — His answer is com- 
plete : — 



38 Objections and Responses. 

1. ^' In the first place, it is false that the regular or 
secular clergy conceived the idea of the ' Eef ormation ^ 
because of their hatred of celibacy. Other and far 
different causes are assigned by de Pradt, and he has 
not a word about celibacy. Henry VIII. was not a celi- 
bate^nor did Elizabeth, his daughter, restore the Anglican 
Eeformation on account of celibacy. In fact, both 
Henry and Elizabeth forbade clerics to marry under 
severe penalties, and every one knows the story about 
Cranmer wanting to bring into England the wife whom 
he had married in Germany. And if those ' reformed ^ 
priests, destitute of all shame, conscience, and religion, 
took advantage of their new position, they were impelled 
by just the passions and desires by which every day so 
many married and single libertines give full rein to their 
licentious dispositions, and were equally disposed to 
becoming Mahomedans, could they thereby justify their 
defection. ^^ 

2. Pktests the first Victims. — " Experience proves 
that this is all talk, or rather the product of a heated 
and dreamy imagination. There are no better subjects 
in a realm, as experience proves, than the ministers of 
the Catholic Church. They are usually the first victims 
in civil insurrections. The objections offered are of 
such a kind as rather to encourage celibacy. The 
liberty and independence of the Church are in question ; 
otherwise Catholics and Protestants equally would be 
subjected to the harsh domination of the civil govern- 
ment, amenable to it in dogma, liturgy, and discipline. 
Take away celibacy, and it would be practically all over 
with the Church. The conflicting interests and cares 
of a married priesthood would soon bring about such 
differences and divisions among them as exist among 
Protestants. 



Objections and Responses, 39 

The Priest Un^iversal. — " The Catholic priest is 
truly ^universal/ He belongs to every age^ every coun- 
try, to the whole world. He participates in the majestic 
ceremonies of the Metropolitan Cathedral, and he min- 
isters to the spiritual and temporal needs of the heathen 
and the barbarian. Just as St. Paul ^ preached Jesus 
and him crucified^ in so many nations, so does a 
Francis Xavier traverse the Orient and a Vincent Ferrer 
the West. 

Potekcy of Catholicity. — ''The Catholic religion 
alone, by its most potent influence on the individual, 
urges and excites its ministers to great deeds and im- 
presses on them the seal of religion. Protestantism — 
being of the earth, earthy — stands hesitating between 
earth and heaven, between Christianity and Hellenism, 
between rationalism and pantheism. It creeps along 
the ground, nor can it rise to the conception or perfor- 
mance of any illustrious achievement/^ 



CHAPTER III. 
Chastity in all Ages. 

Eevered in Pagan as well as in Christian 
Times — Honors paid to Widowhood — Second 
Marriages not favored — Priestly Celibacy 
enjoined in every nation. 

Chastity in all ages and among all nations has ever 
exacted respect. The dissolute have paid it involuntary 
homage. Even in the worst of times men who would 
not practise it have been forced to admire it. But Pro- 
testants have made a great point of the fact that^ under 
the old law, every woman in Israel desired to be mar- 
ried in order to have children. Yet those controver- 
sialists have not honestly stated the reason why. The 
prophecy that the Messiah was to come of the favored 
race was constantly in the mind of the Jewish maiden. 
Each hoped that her offspring might be the favored 
of the Lord. Hence the importance of marriage among 
the Jew^s, and the ignominy which attached to barren- 
ness. Nevertheless, widowhood was highly honored. 
Take the story of Judith, who received the warmest 
eulogiums because she did not take another husband 
after the death of Manasses. The people honored her 
as much for her chastity as for her great victory. 

"^^ You are the glory of Jerusalem/^ said her people, 
^^ the joy and honor of our people, for you have great 
courage, and your heart is strong, because you have 



Chastity in all Ages, 4 1 

loved chastity, and after your husband was dead you 
would not take another/^ 

Widowhood ho^^ored. — Widowhood enjoyed the 
same honor in Eome as in Greece. Artemisia, praised 
by the philosophers and poets, was the admiration of all 
times. The chastity of Penelope, sung by the most 
sublime of poets, was chanted to the skies. Teuta or 
Theusa, as Florus calls her, who was queen of lUyria, 
was considered worthy, on account of her great chastity, 
to command illustrious warriors, and often defeated the 
Romans. St. Jerome, who lived so near to the pagan 
days as to be well acquainted with their customs, tells 
us that the widows who had not married a second time 
held a distinguished rank among other women, and 
that they had the privilege of offering sacrifice to For- 
tuna. At Rome they had a particular name, univira, 
woman of one husband, a word which is yet found 
among other titles of honor in epitaphs. 

Even in China the same ideas w^ll be found. There 
widowhood is venerated to such a degree that triumphal 
arches are erected to 23reserve the memory of women 
who remained widows. 

Opposition^ to Second Marriage. — Second mar- 
riages have always been looked upon with disfavor in all 
times. Even in the midst of the deepest corruption of 
paganism women who desired to preserve their rank, 
their name, or the honor of their families, did not take 
a second husband. It is related that Rhodogune, the 
daughter of Darius, when her nurse advised her to mar- 
ry again, was so irritated that she killed her on the 
spot. 

Towards the close of the Roman Empire, when man- 
ners were so horribly degraded, the hand of Valeria, the 
widow of Maximian, was sought by the Emperor Max- 



42 Chastity in all Ages. 

imin. She declined^ gi^^i^g as her reason that it would 
be contrary to usage and without example that a woman 
of her name and rank should take a second husband. 
(Suetonius^ de morte persecAit,, c. xxxix.) 

Amokg the E0MAiq"S. — Portia^ a Eoman lady^ quoted 
by Hieronymus^ said: "2, lady who is happy and has a 
sense of shame would not marry but once/^ 

History and fable alike show that those who were 
continent w^ere held in esteem by men. Travellers have 
told that among the Hottentots the woman who marries 
a second time is obliged to cut off one of her fingers. 

The disfavor in which second marriages were held 
had an injurious effect upon the offspring of the second 
union* Thus in India the law disinherited the sons- 
of the second marriage. 

The following story from Tacitus shows how great 
was the respect in pagan times paid to continence : — 
In the time of the Roman emperors^ when women like 
Seneca did not count the years according to the 
ordinary method^ but according to the number of 
their husbands^ two distinguished personages, Pollion 
and Agrippa, were disputing about the honor of giving 
a Vestal to the state. ^^The daughter of Pollion was 
preferred, because her mother had never taken a second 
husband, whilst Agrippa had changed his domestic 
relations by divorce.^^ 

St. Paul (I. Cor. vii. 8) says : — ^' I say therefore to 
the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they 
abide, even as I.^^ 

Of the widow he says : — '' She is happier if she so 
abide. ^^- (I. Cor. vii. 40). 

Timothy (I. v. 3.) says : — " Honor widows that are 
widows indeed. ^^ 

St. Paul's Pokesight. — From passages of St. Paul 



Chastity in all Ages. 43 

it is quite clear that the idea of clerical celibacy was 
already taking root. At the same time^ he foresaw how 
such a law might be abused, and he strongly condemned 
the heresies which should forbid marriage. 

The Fathers of the Church, who are the defenders 
and depositories of Catholic dogma, have always eulo- 
gized widowhood and have exhorted widows to remain 
in that state. St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and St. 
Chrysostom, and others have written treatises upon the 
subject. The most virtuous women of advanced age 
were associated with the service of the Church, under 
the name of deaconesses. True, St. Paul says widows 
may marry again, if they cannot be continent, but he 
gives his approval to avoid a great evil. The Fathers 
of the Church always looked upon second marriages as a 
mark of incontinence and reluctantly permitted or 
approved them. Says St. Chrysostom (de non iterando 
conjug., vol. i., p. 435): — ""SSignum magnse cujusdam 
infirmitatis et socordiae.'^ 

The Council of Neocaesarea, held in 314, forbade 
priests to assist at banquets given on these occasions. 

It it easy to see, when second marriages were disliked 
by the Apostles and the Fathers, how heartily they must 
have approved of clerical celibacy. 

Testimony of Akcieistt Authors. — The learned 
Abbe Jager, writing more than fifty years ago, says that 
continence attracts the homage of man in the degree in 
which it approaches perfection. Ancient authors pic- 
ture the virgin as a superior person, a kind of super- 
natural being, '' worthy, ^^ adds the Abbe, *^^of being en 
rapport with the divinity, of being consecrated to its 
service/^ Among all peoples virginity has received the 
same homage and the same tribute of admiration. 
What honors were paid to the vestal virgins of Eome 



44 Chastity in alt Ages. 

and Athens^ honors which were reflected on their 
families ! Livy tells us that Numa, to make the Vestals 
venerated and holy^ ordered them to remain virgins. 
Virgil puts these words into the mouth of Turnus : — 
^^0, decus Italiae^ virgo/^ (Aen. xi., 508) — ^' Oh, vir- 
gin, the honor of Italy /^ 

In the face of history, in the face of writers of' all 
kinds who have extolled chastity, how monstrous that 
Luther and his followers of to-day should decry vir- 
ginity, continence, should assert that it is impossible for 
men and women to live apart ! In India, in China, in 
Mexico, and in other countries. East and West, virginity 
has been extolled and honored. The Saviour Himself 
came from the womb of a Virgin. In the opinion of 
the Chinese, the saints, the sages, the heroes of the 
people were born of a virgin. The Gymnosophists, of 
whom Philostratus speaks, pretended that Buddha, the 
founder of their religion, was born of a virgin. Accord- 
ing to the fable, Plato so came into the world. The 
Greeks could not conceive that so great a man could 
^have been born of any but a virgin. 

The Sentimekt op the People. — ^^ Is this uni- 
versal testimony in favor of continence lost upon us ? ^^ 
asks the Abbe Jager. ^^Not by any means. What is 
in human nature, what is recognized by all, is not lost. 
Let the Protestants and the philosophers decry at their 
ease religious celibacy, people will not be the less per- 
suaded that it is above marriage, that it is a holier and 
more perfect state. Such will be the sentiment of the 
people, an opinion the more unshaken, because Chris- 
tianity has strengthened it in all hearts, and has given 
it an immense impetus. What was formerly astonishing 
because of its rarity, has become common among us. 
There are no Vestals to-day, but instead thousands and 



Chastity in all Ages, 45 

thousands of virgins^ pure as the angels^ burning with 
the devotion of heroism^ some consecrating themselves 
to the education of youths others to the service of the 
sick, all to a ministry that may be repugnant or 
disagreeable. 

^' Jesus Christ has said : — ' And every one that has 
forsaken home, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or 
mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's 
sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit 
everlasting life/ These words have been realized 
beyond all human expectations. 

The Ven^geful Cky. — ''And they would persuade 
us that those heroines, those illustrious virgins, the 
honor of sacerdotal Christianity, the glory of our faith, 
the consolation of humanity, act contrary to Scripture, 
violate the rules of the • evangels and the natural law ! 
He who would say so, would he not have against him 
the whole human kind for such a blasphemy, and hear 
the vengeful cry of indignation for outraged virginity ? "^ 

'' 'Blessed are the pure of heart,^ says Christ, 'for 
they shall see God.^^^ 

Pure Women^ in Pagan Times. — In pagan times 
the women who were pure w^ere honored of all. In 
Christian times the v/omen who consecrate themselves 
* to a life of chastity are slandered and vilified by impious 
men. Impious men I N^ay, it is men who stand well 
in the eyes of the world who join in the outrageous cry. 
Prom the days of Martin Luther to the present time, 
the nun has been the object of cowardly attack. No 
insinuation is too vile to be used against her. Satanic 
slanders have ever been on the lips of professing Chris- 
tians. Are their hearts so full of wickedness that they 
cannot conceive of a woman leading a holy and a chaste 
life ? Think of ladies coming from the proudest famil- 



46 Chastity in all Ages, 

ies of France^ of Spain^ of England, of Germany, of 
Austria, of America, leaving their luxurious homes to 
lead a life of shame ! Great God, the thought is too 
horrible. The only answer to such vicious and degrad- 
ing arguments against the Catholic religion is a knock- 
down blow. 

Calumisty Everywheke. — On the platform, in the 
press, and even in the pulpit, these villanous diatribes 
are daily heard or read. And yet the promulgators of 
such unmistakable falsehoods are received in respectable 
society, and women do not blush when they hear the 
name of the vilifiers of their sex mentioned, and do not 
turn away from the monsters who defame their sisters. 

And this is the age of Protestantism ! 

Monasteries and convents were the products of Chris- 
tianity. St. JuBtin, writing in the middle of the second 
century, said : — " We see in our midst a great number 
of the faithful of both sexes, who have arrived at the 
age of sixty or seventy years, having scrupulously 
preserved their virginity.^' (St. Just, oper., p. 48, edit 
1595.) 

Honoring the Virgins. — In the time of St. Cyprian 
the virgins already formed a distinguished body among 
the faithful. The Empress Helena thought it an honor 
to serve with her own hands the virgins at table. 

According to St. Chrysostom the city of Antioch 
contained about 3,000 virgins. 

The Third Council of Carthage, held in 597, shows 
that virgins who had lived in their families after the 
death of their parents went into a convent for the rest 
of their days. 

St. Jerome observed that in Kome alone the monas- 
teries of the chaste of both sexes were innumerable. 

Theodoret, in the middle of the fifth century, adds 



Chastity in all Ages. 47 

his testimony to the infinite number of societies which 
practised this virtue^ not only in his own country, but 
in the East. Palestine, Egypt, Asia, the whole of 
Europe, he says, were filled with them. 

St. Fulgence says: — ^MVe affirm that virginity is as 
much above marriage as excellent things are above 
merely good things, as heavenly things are above world- 
ly things, as an immortal union is above a perishable 
union, as the spirit is above the flesh. '^ 

What Pkotestakts Ignore. — Volumes could be 
filled with such examples. Mosheim, a great Protest- 
ant writer, proves, from passages of many Fathers, that 
the words of Jesus Christ had been taken literally and 
had inspired the primitive Christians with a great es- 
teem for celibacy. But what Protestants ignore, at 
least what they have entirely forgotten, is that the vow 
of chastity has always been regarded as inviolable. To 
stain it was considered worthy of the severest punish- 
ment. 

St. Basil says: — ^^ Widowhood being inferior to vir- 
ginity, what is criminal in widows is still more so in 
virgins. If widows who have violated their first faith 
(he means in marrying a second time) are con- 
demned by the Apostle, with much greater reason are 
virgins who are the spouses of Jesus Christ, and like a 
vase consecrated to the Lord.^^ 

Both St. Basil and St. Chrysostom considered that 
the fault of a virgin was greater than adultery. The 
Council of Elvira, held in 305, ordered the excommuni- 
cation of erring virgins and refused them communion, 
even at the point of death, unless after their fall they 
had done penance during the remainder of their life. 

Paga:n'S shame the Protestakts. — l^ever had been 
seen before what the leaders of the Reformation per- 



48 Chastity in all Ages. 

mitted after Luther s break from the Church. Even 
the pagans confound the Protestants by their conduct, 
for in the punishing of erring virgins they were severer 
than the Christians. When the vow of chastity had 
been broken^ the punishment that followed was terrible. 
Minutia^ a Koman vestal who was susj)ected of hav- 
ing broken her promise^ was interred alive. 

" An nnjust penalty/' says St. Jerome, '' if the viola- 
tion of virginity had not been in their eyes a great 
crime.'' Ancient history gives us many examples of 
virgins who, sensible of the importance of their prom- 
ise, suffered death rather than break their vow. 

Eeturning to the Jewish customs, we find that Moses 
forbade the Levites, under pain of death, to exercise 
the least of their functions, until they had prepared 
themselves by the exercise of this virtue of continence. 
Saith the Lord: — 

'"^ Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they 
separate themselves from the holy things of the chil- 
dren of Israel, and that they profane not my holy name 
in those things which they hallow unto me. I am the 
Lord. Say unto them, AVhosoever he be of all your 
seed among your generations, that goeth into the holy 
things which the children of Israel hallow unto the 
Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall 
be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord. Say 
unto them. Whosoever he be of all your seed among 
your generations that goeth unto the holy things which 
the children of Israel hallow unto the Lord, having his 
uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from 
my presence. I am the Lord." — Lev., xxii. 1, 2, 3. 

Priests of the Old Law. — The longer the du- 
ration of the religious function, the more rigorous was 
the law of continence. The priests of the old law were 



Chastity in all Ages, ^ 49 

obliged to live in the Temi^le^ estranged from their wives 
during the whole year of their ministry. St. Siricius 
and St. Jerome tell us that the priests returned to their 
households after their year of service, in order that the 
tribe of Levi^ the priestly race, should not become extinct. 

Ak iMMEis^SE Mass of Testimony. — There is an 
immense mass of testimony, drawn from every nation, 
to prove that continence was regarded as indisjDcnsable 
for performing a sacred function. That testimony is in- 
controvertible. Those priests who assisted at the sacrifice 
even temporarily were obliged to be continent at least 
for 24 hours, as we see by the law of Moses and from the 
testimony of Plutarch. 

In Peru there was the fete of the new moon in Sep- 
tember, after the equinox. It was called the Cancu, and 
was a religious purification for body and soul, for which 
preparation was made by the observance of continency. 
Among the Indians of the New World, the Hurons and 
the Iroquois, it was considered a crime not to be conti- 
nent for the 24 hours preceding the ceremony of the 
^^ Calumet.'' 

The Hierophant of the Greeks, whose ministrations 
were for life, was obliged to be continent all his life. 

True Religio:n^, True Virginity. — St. Alphonsus 
says that only a true religion can produce true virginity. 
'^ Nowhere else but among Christians,'' said he, ^' is 
that holy and heavenly precept of virginity so well ful- 
filled, and it is one of the greatest proofs that we 
possess the true religion." 

St. Jerome relates (S. Hier. adv. Jov. lib. 2, c. 9.) 
that the ancient priests of Egypt, renouncing all worldly 
cares and business, lived in the temples and contemplated 
the works of nature. From the very moment, he says, 
that they entered the service of the gods, they abstained 



50 Chastity in all Ages, 

from intercourse with women ; they lived in continual 
continence, never drank wine, and devoted themselves to 
the conquering of every thought of concupiscence. 

In the East and in the West the altars of the gods 
were surrounded bv chaste men and bv chaste women. 
No one else had the right of penetrating the sanctuary. 
The Spartans and the Messenians exchanged virgins for 
the service of the gods. Among the Persians the obliga- 
tion of chastity was imposed upon young women destined 
for the service of the worship of the sun. Among the 
Gauls nine virgins guarded a famous oracle and were 
held in great veneration and had special privileges. 

OpiNio:Nr OF THE Great. Greek Orator. — Demos- 
thenes (contr. Democrat, No. 42) says : — " I am con- 
vinced that those who enter the sanctuary, who touch 
holy things, who preside over Divine worship, ought to 
be chaste, not alone for a certain period, but during 
their whole life.^^ 

And St. John (Kev. xiv. 4.) speaking of the privileged 
and the blessed whom he saw around the throne of the 
Lamb, thus pictures the effect of that holy state which 
certain fanatical Protestants despise : — " These are 
they which were not defiled by women, for they are 
virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whither- 
soever he goeth ; these were redeemed from among men, 
being the first fruits unto God and the Lamb.^^ 

St. Isidore, speaking of the Apostles, says: — ^'^How 
could they have guided the souls of the chaste, unless 
they were so themselves? ^^ — (quo enim pudore viduae, 
aut virginis . . . integritatem vel continentiam praedi- 
care.) No, that was not possible, for the priesthood 
and celibacy were so bound up together in the spirit of 
Christianity that it was not easy to think of the one 
without connecting the other with it, 



Chastity in all Ages. 5 1 

Sublimity of the Priesthood. — St. Chrysostom 
speaks of the sublimity of the Christian priesthood and 
says that the priest ought to be pure and holy. ^^It is 
true/^ he adds^ ^'^that the duties of the priesthood are 
exercised upon the earthy but, nevertheless, we must 
accord it a heavenly rank, for this order comes neither 
from men, nor from angels, nor from any created power. 
It is the Holy Ghost himself who has established it, and 
who tells the beings upon earth that it is a heavenly 
ministry. The priest, then, must be as pure as if he 
were placed in the midst of the heavenly powers.''^ 

St. Ambrose fought with determination the enemies 
of celibacy. '^ These breakers of the law of clerical 
celibacy/^ said he, ^^ pretend that they have an excuse 
in the law of Moses. But the priests of that law offered 
sacrifice only at intervals, and then they washed their 
clothes and purified themselves for many days previous 
to offering the sacrifice, as we read in the Old Testament. 
If the figure demand such preparation, how much 
more does the reality exact ?^^ 



CHAPTER IV. 
Dignity of the Priesthood. 

Cou]^T Joseph De Maistre proves the Practice 
AND Efficacy of Clerical Celibacy— Why 

THERE WERE MARRIED PrIESTS IN APOSTOLIC 

Times — Testimonies from various Sources. 

One of the weakest arguments offered against clerical 
celibacy is that in the days immediately after the Apostles 
and for some time following there were married priests. 

There were^ truly ;, but as the Church was in its in- 
fancy it could not be otherwise. There were good men 
and women^ even among the Pagans. The wicked and 
debased do not as readily appreciate virtue and true 
religion as the good and honest. When these upright 
married pagans entered the Church of Christy they 
became the holiest as well as the most zealous of her 
children. They became priests. But nowhere does 
history show that the priests who lost their wives by 
death married again. 

Married Priests Advocate Celibacy. — The pre- 
ceding chapter gives numerous instances of the esteem 
in which widowhood was held, even by those who were 
not Christians. It is not likely that these widowed 
Christian priests would marry again. In the beginning, 
when the Church was so small, it was not always easy 
to find single men who had the virtues, the talent, and 
the zeal necessary for the priesthood. These qualities 



Dignity of the Priesthood, 53 

were frequently found in the married^ and lience they 
were chosen for the sacred office. But the strongest 
advocates of clerical celibacy were these very priests 
who had entered the married state before they had 
entered the sacerdotal order. 

The Views of Eusebius. — The observance of clerical 
celibacy was so noted between 312 and 476 that Euse- 
bius of Caesarea wrote in his Evangelical Demonstration: 
" The state of continence is the proper state of those 
who are devoted to the priesthood and engaged in the 
ministry of divine worship; of the doctors and the 
preachers of the divine word^ whose care it is to raise a 
holy and spiritual offsprings and to train to holiness^ 
not a particular family^ but the countless multitude of 
the faithful/' The Council of Elvira (33d Canon) de- 
crees that bishops^ priests, and deacons, who have en- 
tered into the married state before ordination, shall 
separate entirely from their wives. The Council of 
Neocaesarea orders that any priest who marries after 
ordination shall be deposed. The Nicene inveighs 
against an abuse, which had gained footing in many 
places, relative to women living under the same roof 
with clerics, under pretext of ministering to them; they 
were called in Greek dyar.rjTai^ in Latin subintroductce, 

^*^ The OEcumenical Council, '^ says the Canon, ^^ for- 
bids all, whether bishops, priests, deacons, or other 
clerics, to have under the same roof any woman save a 
mother, sister, aunt, or other whose relationship pre- 
cludes all just ground of suspicion. '^ 

Ai^ciENT Customs. — ''It is usual,'' says the learned 
Father Thomassin, '' to allege against clerical celibacy 
the story of the holy bishop Paphnutius, who, according 
to Socrates and Sozomenus, obliged, the Fathers of Mce 
to pass no decree subjecting bishops, priests^ and deacons 



54 Dignity of the Priesthood. 

to continence with the wife they had married before 
ordination^ as the ancient tradition only forbade the 
contraction of new marriages after receiving sacred 
orders. But the authority of Socrates and Sozomenus is 
by no means unquestionable. The assertion may be 
grounded on fact^ and Socrates may have erred only in 
what is his own in the account. But when he says that 
the ancient tradition of the Church only forbade the 
contraction of marriage ties in the highest orders of the 
clergy, without depriving them of the use of a preceding 
marriage, we appeal in this matter to Eusebius, St. 
Epiphanius, and St. Jerome, who, besides being more 
ancient than Socrates, were immeasurably better ac- 
quainted with the ancient customs of the Church; his 
assertion, therefore, is unworthy of belief. ^^ 

De Maistre on Celibacy. — Count Joseph De 
Maistre has gone thoroughly and learnedly into the sub- 
ject, and of our modern writers his words are among 
the weightiest. Says the great Frenchman: — 

'^ The whole world has never ceased to bear witness to 
these great truths : 1st. The eminent merit of chastity, 
2d. The natural alliance of continency with all religious 
functions, but particularly with those of the priesthood. 

^^ Christianity, therefore, in imi30sing on priests the 
law of celibacy, has only availed itself of a natural 
idea : it has disincumbered this idea of all error, given 
to it a divine sanction, and converted it into a law of 
the highest discipline. But against this Divine law, 
human nature was too strong, and could only be over- 
come by the inflexible and all-conquering power of the 
Sovereign Pontiff. 

^^ In barbarous ages, above all, nothing less would have 
sufficed to save the priesthood than the hand of Gregory 
VII. Without this extraordinary man, all was lost. 



Dignity of the Pries tJiood, 55 

humanly speaking. The immense power he exercised 
in his time is complained of ; as well might men com- 
plain of God Himself^ who gave him that strength^ 
without which he could nat have acted as he did. The 
powerful legislator obtained all it was possible to obtain 
of rebellious elements ; and his successors applied to the 
great work with such perseverance, that they succeeded 
at last in establishing the priesthood upon immovable 
foundations. 

It Belongs to the Highest DisciPLii^E. — '' I am 
far from exaggerating and wishing to speak of the law 
of celibacy as a dogma, properly so called ; but I hold 
that it belongs to the highest discipline, that it is of 
unrivalled importance, and that we cannot be too grate- 
ful to the Sovereign Pontiff, to whom we are indebted 
for having maintained it.^^ 

De Maistre goes on to prove that the priest who 
belongs to a wife and children belongs no longer to 
his flock, or does not sufficiently belong to it. An 
essential faculty is always wanting to him, — that of 
giving alms, of exercising charity without sometimes 
considering too narrowly his own means. In thinking 
of his children, the married priest dares not follow the 
impulses of his heart ; his purse is tied up against 
indigence, which has nothing to expect at his hands 
but cold exhortations. Moreover, the dignity of the 
priest would be mortally wounded by certain kinds of 
ridicule. The wife of a superior magistrate, who should 
manifestly forget her duties, would do more harm to her 
husband than the wife of any other man. And why ? 
Because the higher magistracies possess a kind of holy 
and venerable dignity, by which they resemble the 
priesthood. What would it not be, then, in regard to 
the priesthood itself ? 



56 Dignity of the Priesthood. 

DA:srGERS of the Married Priest. — Not only do 
the vices of the wife^ reflect great discredit on the 
character of the married priest, but the latter, in his 
turn, escapes not the danger common to all men en- 
gaged in the married state — that of living criminally. 
The multitude of reasoners who have treated the great 
question of ecclesiastical celibacy always ground upon the 
notable sophism that marriage is a state of purity, 
whilst in reality it is clean only to the clean. How 
many marriages are irreproachable before God ? Infin- 
itely few. The man who is blameless in the eyes of the 
world may be infamous at the altar. If human weak- 
ness or perversity establishes a conventional toleration 
in regard to certain abuses, this toleration, which is 
itself an abuse, is never suited to the priest, because the 
conscience of mankind ceases not to compare it with the 
type of sacerdotal perfection it contemplates within 
itself ; so that it makes no allowance for the copy, 
whenever it ceases to be like the pattern. 

^^ In Christianity,- aontinues De Maistre, ^^ there is 
much that is high and sublime ; between the priest and 
his people there are relations so holy and so delicate, 
that they can only belong to men absolutely superior to 
other men. Confession alone requires celibacy. Never 
will women — -and they must be particularly considered 
in regard to this point — give their full confidence to a 
married priest. But it is not easy to write on this 
subject.^^ 

Self-Con"demned Churches. — '' The churches so 
unfortunately separated from the centre of unity were 
not wanting in conscience, but in strength, when they 
sanctioned the marriage of priests. They condemn 
themselves by excepting bishops, and by refusing to 
consecrate priests before they are married. Thus do 



Dignity of the Priesthood, 57 

they acknowledge the rule that no priest can marry ; 
but they admit that, by toleration and for want of 
subjects, a married lay person may be ordained. By a 
species of sophistry which from custom no longer 
offends, instead of ordaining a candidate, although 
married, they marry him in order that he may be 
ordained ; so that, in violating the ancient rule, they 
distinctly bear witness to it. 

^^In order to know the consequences of this fatal 
discipline, one must have been in a position to examine 
them closely. The abject state of the priesthood in the 
countries where it prevails cannot be understood by 
those who have not witnessed it. De Tott, in his 
Memoirs, has not said too much on this point. Who 
could believe- that, in a country where the excellence of 
the marriage of priests is seriously maintained, the 
epithet, son of a priest, is a formal insult? Details on 
this matter would be highly piquant, and in some 
respects even useful; but it is painful to amuse malice 
and to afflict an unfortunate order, which contains, 
although everything be against it, most estimable men, 
as far as it is possible to form a judgment of them at 
the distance at which inexorable opinion holds them 
from all distinguished society. 

Testimojsty of a EussiAis" Prelate. — ^^ Seeking 
always, as far as is practicable, my arms in the camp of 
the enemy, I shall not pass over in silence the striking 
testimony of the same Eussian prelate I have already 
quoted. We shall see what he thought of the discipline 
of his Church on the point of celibacy. This testimony 
bears with it all the weight we can possibly look for, as 
it not only comes to us recommended by the name of its 
author, but issues also from the presses of the Holy 
Synod. 



58 Dignity of the Priesthood. 

^^ After having repeated in the first chapter of his 
Prolegomena an indecent attack of Mosheim, the Arch- 
bishop de Twer continues in the following words : — 

'^ ^1 believe, then, that marriage was never allowed to 
the doctors of the Church, (the priests) except in cases 
of necessity ; when^ for instance, the subjects who 
present themselves in order to fulfil those functions, not 
having fortitude to deny themselves marriage which they 
desire, better and more worthy cannot be found; so that 
the Church, after these incontinent persons have taken 
wives to themselves, admits them to holy orders by acci- 
dent rather than by choice/ 

^^ Who would not be struck by this decision of a man 
in such a favorable position for examining minutely 
what he treats of, and so hostile, besides, to the Catholic 
system ? 

The CoNSCiEiq"CE of Man. — ^^ Although it would not 
have cost me too much to dwell at length on the conse- 
quences of the contrary system, I cannot, however, avoid 
insisting on the absolute nullity of that priesthood, in 
its relation with the conscience of man. That wonder- 
ful influence w^hich checked Theodosius at the entrance 
of the Church, Attila at the gates of Eome, and Louis 
XIY. before the holy table; that power, still more won- 
derful, which can soften the heart of the hardened 
sinner, and restore it to life; which enters palaces, and 
brings from thence the gold of the affluent — let them be 
never so unfeeling or distracted — to pour it into the lap 
of indigence ; which encounters and surmounts all 
difficulties, whenever there is a question of consoling, of 
enlightening, of saving a soul ; — which sjDeaks gently 
but irresistibly to consciences, discovers their fatal 
secrets, to pluck out, together with them, the very roots 
of vice ; the organ and guardian of holy unions : the 



Dignity of the Priesthood. 59 

ever-active enemy of every species of licentiousness ; 
mild, without weakness; terrible, but loving; invaluable 
supplement of reason, of probity, of honor, of all the 
powers of man, at the moment they declare themselves 
powerless; precious and inexhaustible source of recon- 
ciliation, of reparations, of restitutions, of efficacious 
repentance, of all that God most loves after innocence 
itself ; at his post by the cradle of man dispensing 
benediction ; and still at his post wheji, standing near 
his deathbed, he says to him, in the midst of the most 
pathetic exhortations, and the most affectionate adieus, 
^Depart, Christia]!^ Soul/ .... 

'' This supernatural power is nowhere to be found apart 
from unity. I have studied leisurely such Christianity 
as exists beyond this Divine pale. Its priesthood is 
powerless, and trembles before those whom it ought to 
inspire with salutary dread. To him who comes to say, 
\I have stolen,' it dares not say, restore. The most 
abominable sinner owes it no promise ; the priest is 
employed like a machine. AVe might suppose that his 
words are a kind of mechanical operation for effacing 
sins, as material stains are made to disapj)ear by the 
application of soap ; but, in order to appreciate, one 
must have witnessed such a state of things. The moral 
state of the man who has recourse to the ministry of the 
priest is so indifferent in those countries, and is made so 
little account of, that it is quite common to hear people 
ask one another in conversation, ^'^ Have you been to your 
Easter devotions ? '^ This is a question like any other, to 
which the ready answer is yes or no, as if it were merely 
the case of a walk or a visit, which depends entirely on 
the will of him who goes to walk or to see his friends.^^ 

De Maistre points out that women, in their rela- 
tions with the priesthood, cannot fail to be an object 



6o Dignity of the Priesthood, 

of notice to all observers. The curse is inevitable. 
Every married priest will always fall below his character. 
The incontestable superiority of the Catholic Church 
depends entirely on the law of celibacy. 

A Startling Assertio:n". — The learned authors of 
the British Library have ventured on a startling asser- 
tion in regard to this subject^ which requires to be 
quoted and examined. 

^^If the ministers of the Catholic worship/^ say they, 
^^had more generally possessed the spirit of their state, 
in the true sense of the word, attacks against religion 
would not have proved so successful . . . Fortunately 
for the cause of religion, of morals, and the happiness 
of a numerous population, the English clergy, whether 
Anglican or Presbyterian, is far otherwise respectable, 
and it presents not to the enemies of public worship 
either the same reasons or the same pretexts. ^^ 

The way of Peejudice. — " One might search a 
thousand volumes,^^ says De Maistre, '^ and not meet 
with anything so rash; it only furnishes, however, a new 
proof of the terrible sway of prejudice over some of the 
ablest minds, and some of the most estimable men. 

" In the first place, I am at a loss to know in what way 
the comparison is at all applicable; it can have no foun- 
dation whatever, unless priesthood be opposed to priest- 
hood. Now there is no longer any priesthood in the 
Protestant churches; the priest has disappeared together 
with the sacrifice; and it was very remarkable that, 
wherever the Keformation was established, language, the 
unerring interpreter of the conscience, immediately 
abolished the word priest, in so much that, so early as 
the time of Bacon, this word was taken for a kind of 
insult. (Vol. iv., p. 473). When, therefore, there is 
mention of the clergy of England, Scotland, etc., the 



Dignity of the Priesthood. 6i 

expression is not correct; for there is no longer clergy, 
when there are no longer clergymen; just as the mili- 
tary state no longer exists when there are no military. 
The comparison^ therefore, is quite as good as if the 
parish priests of France and Italy had been compared 
to the barristers or medical practitioners of England and 
Scotland. 

SUPERIOEITY OF THE CATHOLIC ClERGY.— '^ But in 

giving to this word clergy all possible latitude, and hold- 
ing it to be applicable to every body of ministers of 
Christian worship, the immense superiority of the 
Catholic clergy, in merit as well as in consideration, is 
as evident as the light of the sun. 

'^ It may even be observed that these two kinds of 
superiority resolve into one; for as regards a body such 
as the Catholic clergy, great consideration is insepar- 
able from great merit; and what is very remarkable, 
this consideration is attributed to it even in separated 
nations, for conscience awards it, and conscience is an 
incorruptible judge. ''^ 

Voltaire Testifies. — The French statesman shows 
that even the censures that are addressed to the Cath- 
olic priesthood prove their superiority. Voltaire admir- 
ably says: — ^^ The life of secular men has always been 
more vicious than that of priests; but the disorders 
of the latter have always been more remarkable, from 
their contrast with the rule.^^ Nothing is forgiven 
them, because everything is expected of them. 

^^The same rule,^^ observes De Maistre, ^^ obtains 
from the Sovereign Pontiff to the sacristan. Every 
member of the Catholic clergy is constantly confronted 
with his ideal character, and constantly judged with- 
out mercy. His peccadilloes, even, are grievous mis- 
deeds; whilst, on the other side, crimes are only slight 



62 Pignity of the Priesthood. 

offences, quite the same as among people of the world. 
What is a minister of the reformed worship? A man 
clothed in black, who ascends a pulpit every Sunday, to 
deliver a polite discourse. Every honest man may 
succeed in this profession, and it excludes no weakness 
of the honest man. I have narrowly examined this 
class of men; above all, I have interrogated, in regard 
to these evangelical ministers, the opinion immediately 
around them, and this opinion even I have found to 
agree with our own in awarding them no superiority of 
character. 

Ce qu'ils peuvent n'est rien ; ils sont ce que nous sommeg, 
Yeritablement hommes, 
Et vivent comme nous. 

^^ Nothing more than probity is required of them. But 
what is this merely human virtue for the formidable 
ministry which requires probity divinized, that is, 
sanctity? I might here show how I could be borne out 
in this statemefit by celebrated examples and frequent 
anecdotes; but this is a n^atter I wish to treat as if I 
were treading on burning coals. Let one great fact 
suffice, because it is public, and cannot be gainsaid: the 
fact of the universal decline in public opinion of the 
Protestant Anglical ministry. The evil is of ancient 
date, and is traceable to the early days of the Keforma- 
tion. The celebrated Lesdiguieres, who resided long on 
the frontiers o'f the duchy of Savoy, highly esteemed and 
saw frequently St. Francis de Sales, at that time Bishop 
of Geneva. The Protestant ministers, shocked at such a 
friendship, resolved to address an admonition in due 
form to the noble warrior, who Avas then, moreover, the 
chief of their party. Whoever desires to know what 
happened, and what was said on that occasion, may read 
the whole history in one of our ascetic works, which 



Dignity of the Priesthood. 63 

enjoys a tolerable circulation. For my part I am not 
copying/' 

Degradation ik Ejs-gland. — England is pointed to; 
but it is in England particularly that the degradation 
of the evangelical ministry is most obvious. The prop- 
erty of the clergy is almost all become the patrimony of 
the junior members of good families^ who amuse them- 
selves in the worlds like the people of the worlds 
leaving, moreover, to hired substitutes the task of prais- 
ing God. 

" The bench of bishops in the house of Peers is a kind 
of superfluity which might be removed without occasion- 
ing the least inconvenience. These prelates scarcely 
venture to speak even on matters connected with reli- 
gion. 

" The clergy of the second order is excluded from the 
national representation, and, in order to keep them 
always at a distance from it, recourse is had to an 
historical subtlety which a breath of the legislature 
might have removed long ago, if opinion did not, as is 
obvious, repel them. Not only is the clerical order 
lowered in public opinion, it is also mistrustful even of 
itself. Frequently has the English ecclesiastic been 
known, ashamed of his state, to efface from public 
writings the fatal letter (R., Rev.) which preserves 
his name and denotes his character. Frequently, also, 
has he been seen disguised as in a layman's dress, and 
sometimes even in military garb, figuring in drawing- 
rooms abroad, with his harlequin sword.'' 

Catholic E^makcipation. — De Maistre adds that, 
at the time (1805) when in England was agitated, with 
so much noise and solemnity, the question of Catholic 
emancipation, ecclesiastics were spoken of in Parlia- 
ment with such bitterness^ such harshness, and such 



64 Dig7iity of the Priesthood. 

decided mistrust, that strangers were, beyond compar- 
ison, more surprised than the ordinary audience. 

It must be said also that there is, even in the charac- 
ter of this evangelical militia, something that forbids 
confidence, and invokes discredit. There is no authority, 
no rule; and consequently no common belief in their 
churches. They themselves acknowledge with perfect 
candor, " that the Protestant ecclesiastic is not obliged 
to subscribe any confession of faith whatever, except for 
the sake of public repose and tranquillity, without any 
other object than to maintain between the members of 
the same community extek:n'AL union; but that in 
other respects none of these confessions can be consid- 
ered, properly speaking, a rule of faith. Protestants 
recognize no other than the Holy Scripture. 

" When, therefore, one of these preachers goes to preach, 
what means has he of proving that he believes what he 
says? and what means has he, moreover, of knowing 
that his audience is making light of him? I cannot 
avoid thinking I hear every one of his hearers saying to 
him with a sceptic grin, truly I believe that he believes 
that I believe him. 

Warbukto]S"'s blikd Hatred. — " One of the most 
hardened fanatics that ever existed, Warburton, found- 
ed,^^ says the distinguished French author, ^'^at his 
death, a chair to prove that the Pope is Antichrist. 
To the shame of our unfortunate nature, this chair 
has not yet been vacant. There was seen adver- 
tised in the English newspapers of this year (1817) a 
discourse delivered on account of the foundation. I do 
not at all believe in the good faith of Warburton; but, 
although it were possible on the part of one man, how 
imagine a succession of extravagant persons, all gone 
wrong in the same way — all raving in sincerity! Com- 



Dignity of the PriestJiood. 65 

mon sense totally rejects sucli a conclusion ; so that, 
without the least doubt, several, perhaps all, will have 
spoken for money against their conscience. Only fancy 
a Pitt, a Fox, a Burke, a Grey, a Granville, or other 
minds of the like calibre, attending one of these ser- 
mons! Not only must the preacher be lost in their esti- 
mation, discredit will also reflect on the whole order 
of preachers. 

I speak here of a particular case; but there are 
many other causes which wound the character of the 
dissenting ecclesiastic, and lower him in opinion. It is 
impossible that men, habitually mistrusted, can enjoy 
much consideration; never will they be looked upon, by 
their own party even, otherwise than as advocates paid 
to support a certain cause. They will never be denied 
talent, science, punctuality in the fulfilment of their 
duties; sincerity is quite another thing. 

GiBBo:Nr 01s. THE Eeformed Chuech. — '' The doctrine 
of a reformed Church,^^ says Gibbon, '^ has nothing in 
common with the knowledge or the belief of those who 
are connected wdth it, and the modern clergy subscribe, 
with a sigh or smile, the forms of orthodoxy and estab- 
lished symbols .... The predictions of the Catholics 
have come to be fulfilled. The Armenians, the Arians, 
the Socinians, whose members cannot be calculated 
according to their respective congregations, have broken 
and rejected the connected series of the mysteries of 
revelation.'^ 

" Gibbon here,'' remarks De Maistre, '^^ expresses the 
universal opinion of enlightened Protestants in regard 
to their clergy. I have had many opportunities of 
knowing this fact, and have learned it for certain. 
There is, therefore, no medium for the reformed minis- 
ter. If lie preaches dogma, men believe that he is re- 



66 Dignity of the Priesthood, 

tailing falsehood; if he dare not preach it, the}'^ do not 
believe that he is anything. 

Merely Civil Officers. — ''The sacred character 
having been wholly obliterated from the brow of those 
ministers^ sovereigns no longer considered them other^ 
wise than as civil officers^ whose duty it was to follow, 
together with the rest of the flock, under the common 
crook. The touching complaints uttered even by a 
member of this unfortunate order on the way in which 
temporal authority makes use of their ministry, will 
not be read without interest. After having declaimed, 
like a vulgar man, against the Catholic hierarchy, he 
soars of a sudden above all prejudices, and pronounces 
these solemn words: — ; 

'' ' Protestantism has not less vilified the sacerdotal 
dignity. In order not to seem to aspire to the Catholic 
hierarchy, the Protestant priests divested themselves 
very speedily of all religious appearance, and placed 
themselves most humbly at the feet of the temporal 
authority. . . . Because it was by no means the vocation 
of the Protestant priests to govern the state, it ought 
not thence to have been concluded that it belonged to 
the state to rule the Chui'ch. . . . The salaries which the 
state awards to ecclesiastics have rendered them quite 
worldly . . . together with ^ their sacerdotal robes, they 
have cast off the spiritual character. . . The state has 
done its work, and all the evil must be laid to the charge 
of the Protestant clergy. It has become frivolous. . . . 
The priests do no more than to fulfil their duties as 
citizens. . . . The state no longer views them in any 
other light than as officers of ]3olice. ... It has little 
esteem for them and assigns to them the lowest rank 
among its officers. . , . when religion becomes the servant 
of the state, it is permitted to look upon it in this 



Dignity of the Priesthood. 67 

degraded condition as the work of men^ and even as a 
deception. In our days only have industry^ diet^ politics^ 
rural economy, and police been known to enter the 
pulpit. . . . The priest must believe that he follows out 
his destiny and fulfils his duties in giving a lecture 
from the pulpit on the regulations of the police. He 
must publish in his sermons receipts against epizootic, 
show the necessity of vaccination, and preach on the 
means of prolonging human life. How, then, after 
this, will he set about diverting men^s affections from 
temporal and perishable things, whilst he himself en- 
deavors, with the sanction of government^ to attach 
them to the galleys of life.^^^ 



CHAPTER V. 
Curbing the Passions. 

VOLUKTARY AUSTERITIES AmOKG THE MAXICHiEAKS, 

Buddhists, ais^d Brahmaks — Lessoj^s to Prot- 
estants — Monasteries and Nunneries — Their 
Early Establishment and Magnificent Work. 

One of the doctrines of Luther is that it is impossible 
for man to curb certain passions. He alludes to concu- 
piscence. His imitators have echoed and reechoed 
this ^^ sentiment ^^ and have used it — often in shameful 
ways — as an argaiment against priestly celibacy. How 
many precious souls have been lost through making 
this horrible doctrine an excuse for doing what their 
inner consciousness tells them is wrong. The history of 
the world proves the contrary. We will give examples, 
not only from the lives of the early Christians, but from 
the history of pagans, to prove that man can and has 
curbed his passions. Men, even without the blessed 
light of the true gospel, have voluntarily retired from 
the world to practise virtues tliat put the Protest^-nt 
Christianity of our own times to the blush. 

Universal Eespect for Virtue. — Everywhere and 
in all times, virtue has claimed tlie respect of even the 
worst elements of mankind. The rulers of the Church 
saw how it would add to the usefulness of the clergy, 
how it woukl enhance their value in the eyes of the 
people, if, by their fortitude and self-abnegation, they 



Curbing tJic Passions. 69 

became continent, mortified the flesh and ;>;ave an ex- 
ample of the attainment of salvation by the sacrifice of 
passions and affections. When Christianity dawned 
upon the world;, society was wholly corrupt. Licentious- 
ness was the order of the day. The satirists and histo- 
rians of the Roman empire give proof of it. Unchastity 
was thought to be no crime, purity was the laughing 
stock of the so-called wits. A new system of morality 
Avas imperative to save society. The early Christians 
Avere at first a puzzle to the vicious, and in time they 
became objects of admiration, then of hatred, and 
again of admiration. Justin Martyr, the Apologist, 
who flourished about 150, refers to their chastity and 
sobriety thus: — 

" Quid enim, enumeremus infinitam multitudinem 
eorum qui ab incontinenti intemperataque vita abducti 
sunt quum haec ipsa didicissent?^^ 

[How can we enumerate the infinite multitude of 
those who, when they learned these things^ gave up a 
life of unchastity and intemperance?] 

The Rise of Asceticism. — When converts had their 
eyes opened to the sinfulness of their lives, naturally 
they were tempted to plunge into the other extreme. 
Hence the rise of asceticism. The practical morality of 
the Gospel was perverted by converted philosophers, 
and heresies resulted. The Abstinentes, the Apotact- 
ici, the Excalceati, and other sects denounced marriage 
as a deadly sin. For fully 300 years before the birth of 
Christ Buddhism was the chief religion of India. It 
was a religion of asceticism. It is curious how many of 
its observances and customs are analogous to those of 
Christianity. It is said that monasticism, the tonsure, 
the use of rosaries, confession, penance, absolution, and 
other practices are derived from Buddhism. 



70 Ctcrbing the Passions. 

Mo^^ASTic IxsTiTUTiOKS DEVELOPED. — The general 
advance of the Church at this period (312-476) was 
folloAved by the development of monastic institutions. 
Monks were at first divided into three classes: the 
Cenobites^ who lived in communities uncjer a superior; 
the Anchorites^ who lived alone in the desert solitudes; 
the Sabaraites^ who lived two or three together in cells; 
the latter class had but little duration. Cassian has 
drawn a graphic picture of the edifying life led by the 
solitaries of his day. They were wdiolly occupied in 
prayer and manual labor; their daily food was bread 
and water; their bed^ a rush mat; their pillow^ a handful 
of leaves. 

Egypft was the birth place of the monastic life; from 
thence it passed into Syria^ Pontus^ Asia Minor, and the 
West. Then the Gauls had also their celebrated mon- 
asteries, among which may be mentioned the found- 
ation of those of Tours and of Lerins. The name of 
St. Augustine is also associated with a code of monastic 
rules destined to lead generations of religious to the 
height of sanctity. 

Most of the monks were laymen, and Cassian tells us 
that those of St. Pacomius^s monastery depended upon 
the priests of the neighboring villages for the celebra- 
tion of the Holy Mysteries. The monastic life debarred 
them from the priestly state. The manual labor to 
which they devoted themselves furnished them not only 
the means of procuring their coarse and slender fare, 
but even of giving plentiful alms. The Alexandrian 
poor were relieved by boat loads of wheat which had 
been raised from the burning sands of the desert by the 
patient toil of the monks of Arsinoe. St. Augustine 
notices the same practical charity in the monks of 
Northern Africa. Yet some of these solitaries were 



Cttrbiiig the Passions, 71 

occasionally torn from their desert homes to be incorpo- 
rated among* the clergy of- the neighboring episcopal 
city; but they then became seculars^ as was the case 
with those who were raised to the episcopate. In his 
letter to Dracontius^ written about the year 353^ St. 
Athanasius reckons seven monks who had already been 
made bishops. Such was the increase of solitaries at 
the end of the fourth century^ that the single City 
of Oxyrinchus^ in Lower ThebaiS; numbered ten thou- 
sand monks and twenty thousand virgins. 

CoMMUisriTiES OF WoMEN". — It would sccm that the 
formation of communities of women preceded those of 
men. St. Anthony, when about to begin his solitary 
life, first placed his sister in a convent of virgins 
{T.ap^%vdjva), TertuUian and Cyprian both speak of 
this community of women as having been long estab- 
lished. 

The monastic institutions were divided into five clas- 
ses — Monks, Canons Regular, Military Orders, Friars, 
and Clerks Eegular. 

The Fou:n^der of Coe:n'obitic Life. — When St. 
Anthony died in 365, aged 105, the desert was already 
studded with hermitages in every direction, and the 
second great step in the development of monasticism had 
been long taken by Pachomius, who is regarded as the 
founder of the coenobitic life amongst Christians, and 
as the author of the first formal monastic rule. 
Pachomius was born about 292. While serving m the 
array he was converted to Christianity, and on his dis- 
charge adopted the ascetic life under the hermit 
Palsemon, with whom he retired to Tabernae, an island 
in the Nile, between Farshoot and Denderah. There 
he elaborated his system. A strict probation of three 
years was imposed upon postulants for admission. 



72 Curbing the Passions. 

He induced his sister to foiuid a convent of nuns 
governed by rules like liis own, and subject to the 
authority of a visitor appointed by himself, as superior 
of the noble institute. When he died (between 348 and 
360) he had no fewer than 1^,400 monks in his own 
monastery^ and 7,000 altogether under his authority. 
St. Athanasius introduced his system into Italy, and 
finally it was displaced by the Benedictine Order. 

The Digi^ity of Labor. — One of the most valuable 
features in the rule of St. Benedict was the restoration . 
of the dignity of labor. In his days toil of all kinds 
was considered degrading, and was done by slaves. By 
making it a part of his monastic system, he elevated labor 
and dignified the toiler. A Protestant writer, the Eev. 
E. F. Littledale, said of him : — " It is the special glory 
of Benedict that he taught the men of his day that 
work, sanctified by prayer, is the best thing which man 
can do, and the lesson has never been wholly lost sight 
of since. ^^ 

The same writer says of this famous Order : — '' It was 
as teachers of what for those times was scientific agri- 
culture, as drainers of fens and morasses, as clearers of 
forests, as makers of roads, as tillers of the reclaimed 
soil, as architects of durable and even stately buildings, 
as exhibiting a visible type of orderly government, as 
establishing the superiority of peace over war as the 
normal condition of life, as students in the library which 
the rule sets up in every monastery, as the masters in 
schools, open not merely to their own postulants, but to 
the chijdren of secular families also, that they won 
their high place in history, as benefactors of mankind. ^^ 

Wome:n" Elevated. — Of the nuns Mr. Littledale 
says: — ^^The cloister was not alone the single secure 
shelter for women who had no strong arm to rely on, 



Cicrbiug the Passions. 73 

but it provided the only alternative profession to mar- 
riage, and that one recognized by public opinion as of 
even higher destination, and opening to women posi- 
tions of substantial rank and authority, less precarious 
than the possession of temporal estates, which might 
only serve to attract cupidity, and so invite attack. 
The abbess of a great Benedictine house was more than 
the equal of the wife of any save a very great noble ; 
and as single women were thus not obliged to look to 
wedlock as the only path to safety and consequence, 
they were enabled to mate on more equal terms, and 
were less likely to be viewed as the mere toys or servants 
of the stronger sex/' 

Testimony of a Pkotestakt. — But nowhere do we 
find in this Protestant author who has written on 
'^ Monachism '^ such terrible and vile slanders of his 
kind, as have been recently uttered by another Protest- 
ant clergyman. He does not speak degradingly of 
these noble women and these holy men, for the reason 
that he had studied his subject, and had brought a cul- 
tivated mind to bear upon it. On the contrary, he says, 
touching upon the Reformation period in England: — 

" There is little reason to trust the charge of immo- 
rality brought against the monks, when Henry YIII. had 
once resolved on the pillage of the monasteries. The 
characters of the king himself, of Cromwell, his chief 
agent in the dissolution, and of Layton, Legh, and 
others of the visitors appointed to inquire into the 
condition of the houses, are such as to deprive their 
statements of all credit ; and, besides, the earlier Act of 
dissolution, granted the smaller monasteries to the 
king, limits the charges of misconduct to them, 
expressly acquitting the larger houses. Nevertheless, 
when the appetite for plunder had increased with the 



74 Curbing the Passions. 

first taste of booty^ accusations of precisely the same 
sort were brought up against the great monasteries^ 
though in no instance has any verifiable proof been 
preserved/^ 

Suppressions in Ekglaistd. — The number of houses 
suppressed and overthrown in England by the two Acts 
of 1536 and 1538 was as follows : — 186 Benedictine 
houses, 173 Augustinians, 101 Cistercians^ 33 Domini- 
' can^ Franciscan, Carmelite, and Austin friaries^ 32 
Prsemonstratensians, 28 Knights Hospitalers^ 25 Gil- 
bertines, 20 Cluniacs, 9 Carthusians^ 3 Frontevraud, 3 
Minoresses, 2 Bonhommes, 1 Brigittine ; total, 616. 

The Manich^axs. — There were two great religious 
systems opposed to Catholicism in AYestern Asia and the 
South of Europe, at the close of the third century. 
These were Manichasism and Jfeo-Platonism, and, like 
the Catholic religion^ they had put off the national and 
particular character of the ancient religions, and tried 
to become universal. What is true of Manichseism is 
to a great extent true of Neo-Platonism. 

Manichseism had ideas of revelation, redemption, 
ascetic virtue, and morality. Manichaeism survived 
until far into the middle ages. The founder of the 
system was Mani, a highborn Persian of Ecbatana. 
The ethics of Manichaeism were thoroughly ascetic. 
The eating of the flesh of animals and the drinking of 
wine were forbidden. Especially was every gratification 
of sexual desire, and hence also marriage, forbidden. 
Life was further regulated by an exceedingly rigorous 
system of fasts. Certain astronomical conjunctions 
determined the selection of the fast days, which in their 
total number amounted to nearly a quarter of the year. 
Sunday was always one. Hours of prayer were deter- 
mined with equal exactness. The Manicha^'ans had to 



Citrbing t/ic Passions. 75 

pray four times a day^ each i:)rayer being preceded by 
ablutions. 

False Assektioxs. — And yet Protestants say it, is 
impossible for man to curb his passions. But here^ 
hundreds and hundreds of years ago, were multitudes 
of men without the light of the true Gospel^ without 
the graces which Christianity bestows, living lives that 
apparently were examples of purity, and with naught to 
sustain them but the consciousness of right. 

It is held that the later Manichaeans celebrated 
mysteries analogous to Christian baptism and the Lord^s 
Supper. What knowledge Mani had of Christianity, or 
how it reached him, cannot be easily determined. The 
Western Manichaeans of the fourth and fifth centuries 
are much more like . Christians than their Eastern 
brethren. What gave strength to Manichaeism was rather 
that it undid an ancient mythology and a thorough- 
going materialistic dualism with an exceedingly spiri- 
tual worship as well as strict morality. 

The Buddhists. — Let us turn to India for another 
example of how men can curb their passions. Buddh- 
ism formerly prevailed through a large part of that 
great country. It is now professed by the inhabitants of 
Ceylon, Siam, and Burmah (the Southern Buddhists), 
and of K"epaul, Thibet, China, and Japan, (the Northern 
Buddhists.) It arose out of the philosophical and 
ethical teachings of Siddharta Gautama, the eldest 
son of Suddhodana, who was Eajah in Kapilavastu and 
chief of the tribe of the Sakyas, an Aryan clan seated 
during the fifth century, B. C, on the banks of the 
Kohona, about 100 miles north of the city of Benares, 
and about fifty miles north of the foot of the Himalaya 
Mountains. 

It was a logical conclusion from the views of life 



76 Ciirhiuo' flic Passions. 

held by Gantaniii that any rapid progress in spiritual 
life was only compatible with an ascetic life, in which* 
all such contact with the world as would tend to create 
earthly desires would be reduced as much as possible. 

GoKTRARY TO LuTHER. — This is contrary to the 
teachings of Luther^ which we abundantly show else- 
where. 

Buddhism taught that to forsake the world was a 
necessary step towards the attainment of spiritual free- 
dom. Those who devoted themselves to the higher life 
gradually assumed the characteristics of the monks of 
Christianity. Eules were laid down and followed. No 
monk could eat solid food^ except between sunrise and 
noon^ and total abstinence from intoxicating drinks 
was rendered obligatory. The majority of the monks 
lived in companies in groves or gardens, and very soon 
the piety of laymen provided for them suitable monas- 
teries, several of which were built even in the lifetime 
of Buddha. Poor and scanty clothing was provided for 
them. 

Sexual intercourse was looked upon as the blackest 
of sins, and the offender was expelled from the order. 
The vow of poverty was taken and the monk was 
allowed only eight simple articles. Self-conquest and 
universal charity were the foundations of the system. 
In the eighth and ninth centuries a great persecution 
arose, and the Buddhists were so utterly exterminated 
that there is not now a Buddhist in all India, although, 
of course, the effects of so great a movement could not 
pass away, and it left its mark for ever on the Hinduism 
which supplanted it. 

The Brahmaks. — The new theistic church in India, 
Brahmanism, owes its origin to Eajah Eam Mohan Eai, 
one of the leac'^ing men whom India has produced in 



Curbing the Passions. yy 

later times. Impressed with the fallacy of the religious 
ceremonies practised hy his countrymen, he impartially 
investigated the Hindu Shastras^ the Koran, and the 
Bible, and inculcated the reformed principles of mono- 
theism. In 1830, he organized a Hindu society for 
prayer-meetings, which may be considered as the foun- 
dation of the present Brahma Samaj. Austere practices 
were enjoined to fit one^s self for a departure from this 
life. Orthodox Brahmanical scholasticism made the 
attainment of final emancipation dependent on perfect 
knowledge of the divine essence. This knowledge could 
be obtained only by complete abstraction of the mind 
from external objects and intense meditation on the 
divinity, brought about by the total extinction of all 
sensual instincts by means of austerity. The Brahman 
occupied a high rank among the Hindus because the 
people believed him to be a pure, stainless being. 



CHAPTER VI. 
The Confessional. 

Bitter Attacks upo:n^ it by Protestants — Igkorant 
a:n"d Fanatical Controversialists — A Divine 
Institution — Rules of the Church in Con- 
fessing Women and Children — The Moral 
Theology Side of the Question. 

By far the bitterest attacks of the Protestants have 
been directed against the Confessional. They merely 
scoff at the other sacraments of the Chnrch, but of the 
Sacrament of Penance their condemnation is strongs 
their hate deep^ bitter^ and lasting. Of all the harsh 
and vile things they have said of the monasteries and 
nunneries, they cannot compare, singly or wholly, with 
the Hastiness and gratuitous falsehoods with which they 
have assailed the confessional. 

A Power in the Church.^ — Instinctively they feel 
this is one of the greatest powers the Church wields to 
preserve its members from the contamination of the 
world, the continuance of the indulgence of passion, 
the taint of heresy. 

If confession were a human institution, perhaps the 
attacks upon it would not be so venomous. It is essen- 
tially supernatural, and therefore mere human argu- 
ments against it are instinctively felt to be unavailing. 
They cannot point to any one man as its founder, to 
any particular period in history when its appearance, 



The Co7tfessio7taL 79 

surprised a community. It always existed. It is of 
divine origin. Christ Avas its founder. ^"^ Confess your 
sins to one another/^ was said at the beginning. 

Huma:n'. Pride Rebels.— It is a hard thing for man 
to say, "\ have done wrong — I have sinned. ^^ Human 
pride rebels against the confession. Eare is the esti- 
mable man — estimable in all things but pride — who will 
blushingly declare — in public or to his neighbor — " I 
have done wrong in this thiiig.^^ He will give money, to 
repair an injustice, but he will not say in so many words 
— '^^ I have done an injustice.'^ 

Examples are thick around us of this stubborness of 
heart. The readers of newspapers, day after day, see ac- 
counts of strikes all over the country, all over the 
world. Workmen have been underpaid. They have 
been unjustly deprived of a fair share of the fruits of 
their labor. When the public cry goes up, does the 
master or the corporation say, " we have been unjust, 
come back, we will do better in the future.''^ 

ISTo. They may have the feeling, but their pride 
revolts against the confession; they will not acknowledge 
a fault, and they would rather continue the bitter fight 
against justice to the poor and lowly, rather lose all 
they had gained, than stand before the world self-ac- 
cused. It is the weakness of human nature. 

Spiritual Pride. — This being true in worldly mat- 
ters, how much more so is it in spiritual. It is the 
same kind of stubborness that prevents the man kneel- 
ing in the confessional and confessing his sins against 
his Maker. He is too proud to say, '^ I have committed 
this fault-— forgive me.^^ Deej) down in his heart he has 
the consciousness of sin, but he is afraid to put it 
into words. 

There mav be, too, a sense of shame, But if this 



8o The Confessional, 

slianie can be overcome^ if the penitent can be brought 
to confess, how great is the victory! He feels like a 
new man; he is comforted; he is strengthened. He is 
strong in a resolve to sin no more. The very pain of 
making the confession will linger with him, and when 
next the occasion of sin arises, the memory of the smart 
will be i^resent, and he will resist the temptation. The 
child that has been scorched by fire will avoid the 
flame. 

Co:n'fessio:n' 2^eveii easy. — He must know little or 
nothing of human nature, or be wilfully blind, or close 
his eyes to what he sees, who dares to assert that the 
frequency of confession dulls the sense of shame in the 
penitent, and renders him more indifferent to the 
hideousness of sin. In common parlance, one never 
becomes used to it. The confession is always an ordeal 
— even to the best of men and women. There is the 
examination of conscience, trying in itself, while the 
laying bare of the heart to another — even though peni- 
tent and confessor may not see each other, is no grateful 
task. True, the penitent knows that he is confessing 
to Almighty God, and that the priest is but the agent 
of the Sacrament of Penance. Yet it is the humilia- 
ting confession* of weakness. This is partly a human 
way of looking at it, but the argument is that the act 
of going to confession and the necessity of exciting 
within one's self a lively contrition, before absolution 
can be received, is just as much a deterrent from sin 
as are the legal punishments in the case of crime in the 
world, nay, more so. 

Protestant Confession^. — How comfortable and 
easy is the confession of the Protestant. All that is 
required of him is to fool within his own heart that ho 
is a sinner, and lie is "^^^ saved." Ho has no ^pt and 



The Confessional, 8i 

instant words of comfort, advice, and guidance from a 
priest who has studied the soul, who has devoted him- 
self to its service, and who is gifted with the grace to 
lead it into the straight and narrow path. 

And men are found in this enlightened age to aver 
that the confessional is the corrupter of youth and 
women. To say so is one thing; to prove it, is another. 

Doctrine of Co:n"fessio:n". — The doctrine of the 
Church is no secret. She teaches and has always 
taught that, for tlie pardon of sins in the Sacrament of 
Penance, Christ requires the peni tenths confession, with 
contrition and satisfaction, and the priest's absolution. 
Xo confession, however full, will obtain pardon for sin, 
unless the person confessing is sorry for having com- 
mitted it and resolves to amend. The Church teaches 
that the Sacrament of Penance is necessarv for all those 
who have committed any mortal sin after baptism. 

The person who worthily frequents confession gains a 
firm purpose of amendment, the marks of which are 
a change of life, the avoiding of the occasions that com- 
monly lead to sin, and the endeavor to destroy evil 
habits. 

CoxTRiTiQ]^ NECESSARY. — The Cliurch teaches that 
contrition should have four qualities — interior, super- 
natural, universal, and sovereign. By interior sorrow is 
meant that it is in the heart and is sincere — otherwise 
it would be only hypocrisy. Supernatural sorrow should 
be produced in the heart by a motive of faith and the 
grace of the Holy Ghost. Universal sorrow should ex- 
tend to all our mortal sins. By sovereign is meant that 
we be more grieved for having offended God than for all 
the other evils that could happen to us. Perfect con- 
trition is a hearty sori'ow for having offended God, 
because he is sovereignly good, and it has the effect of 



82 The Con/essionaL 

justifying the sinner by itself, and before absolution, 
yet with the desire and obligation of confessing as soon 
as possible. 

Imperfect contrition, commonly called attrition, is a 
hearty sorrow for having offended God on account of 
the shamefulness of having sin, or the fear of its j)un- 
ishment, which is the eternal pains of hell. Though 
attrition disposes the penitent for obtaining pardon of 
his sins, yet it is better to excite himself as far as he is 
able to perfect contrition, before confession. 

Ak Iksult to the Mokal Sense. — All that a priest 
teaches almost every day. But ah ! saj'S the fanatic, 
the confessional is the corrujoter of youth and women. 
Indeed ! Is it not an insult to human intelligence to 
believe that 200,000,000 people, of all races and all 
languages, can be cajoled by a corrupt institution ? Is 
it not an insult to the moral sense of intelligent beings 
to assert that they willingly, gladly, give tliemselves up 
to a vile machine, to be made infamous and diabolical ? 
The supposition is monstrous. 

The unfortunate men who speak thus have not un- 
frequently paid tribute to the eloquence of the Catholic 
priest and have never denied that the pulpit discourses 
have been at least moral and full of exhortations to vir- 
tue, and denunciations of vice. ^^'Ah! but they were 
hypocrites — they did not practise what they preached.^' 
Well, it will be acknowledged that we are not all born 
devils. Most of the congregations to whom the priest 
preaches are young, and are yet innocent of the worst 
of sins, especially the young woman. How great then 
would be the shock these would experience at discover- 
ing in the confessional the very opposite of what they 
had heard in the pulpit! 

Bourdaloue's l]SSTRUCTroN, — Listen to the e]o- 



The ConfessionaL 83 

quence of a Bourdaloue on this very subject of the 
sacrament of penance: — 

" But how shall we begin to discern in ourselves this 
true penitence, and what I here call a sincere and effica- 
cious detestation of sin ? Hearken Christians, and 
judge by this practical induction. By actually and 
effectually cutting off whatever we discover in ourselves 
to be the cause of sin, or fomenting and nourishing 
that body of sin which God, at our conversion, wills us 
to destroy. By relinquishing a thousand agreeable 
things, the carnal man^s delight, but which, for that 
reason, are incentives to evil and poison to the soul. 
By declining those objects that excite in the heart per- 
nicious desires, which, according to the Scripture, ' when 
concupiscence conceiveth, it bringeth forth sin.^ By a 
scrupulous carefulness of avoiding conversations, of 
which we know how the baneful licentiousness corrupts 
and enfeebles purity of manners, as they give occasion 
to the first wounds, and not unfrequently the most in- 
curable, that sin inflicts. By a severe, salutary, neces- 
sary resolution of giving up such intercourses as Ave 
know by experience are the bonds of sin; exhibitions 
and spectacles the effect of which is to stir up in the 
heart the most lively passions, and to diffuse in the 
imagination the most dangerous ideas, the seeds of im- 
morality; assemblies and routs, in which the spirit of 
impurity reigns, and can lay inevitable snares for in- 
]iocence; romances and novels, by which our curiosity 
is so justly punished by the malignant impression they 
leave behind. '*'' ^' "^ In a word, by that evangelical 
circumcision which stops not at outward show and 
alterations, but searches the inmost recesses of the 
heart, and destroys radically every efllicient of snn it 
meets with. 



84 The ConfessioiiaL 

The Method of Hypocrisy. — " The method of 
hypocris}^/' Boiirclalone said in the same sermon, " is 
to lament the violent attacks of passion, and yet rush into 
the dangers blindly, and inconsiderately, in which pas- 
sions the most moderate are hardly governable. The 
method of hypocrisy is to cry, ' oh I unhappy man that 
I am I born so sensual and so frail ! ^ and to seek, not- 
withstanding this open acknowledgment, occasions of 
sinning against God^s command, in which human 
frailty, from a mere misfortune, becomes a crime, or at 
least the original of all crimes. Such is the nature of 
penitential hypocrisy; and that is the judgment you 
ought to form of it. * * * The efficacy, therefore, of 
penance, consists in generously quitting the occasion of 
sin, in order to overcome it; and not attempting to over- 
come it by sluggishly remaining in the occasion of it.^' 

No CHAXCE FOR THE WOULD-BE-CoRRUPTER. — Do 

these utterances sound like the words of a hypocrite? 
Can this priest be the corrupter of youth and of women 
in the confessional? But if the Protestant will con- 
cede that Bourdaloue was above reproach, what chance 
would a priest of wicked heart have of corrupting those 
who listened to such exhortations as Bourdaloue's, and 
who had been instructed in their faith? None what- 
ever. His penitents would fly from him in horror. 
He would be discovered, denounced, and driven from 
the priestliood. 

It is charged that those studying for the priesthood 
in seminaries are corrupted by being forced to study 
certain theological works dealing with confession. It is 
one of those calumnies that wo are always meeting; it is 
a kind of mud the enemies of the Church are always 
hurling at it, in the vain hope that some of it ^vill stick. 
As a nuitter of fact, the young men in the semiuarjes are 



The CoiifessionaL 85 

not only not induced to study these subjects, but they 
are deterred from studying them until they shall have 
received sacred orders. Then their age is more ad- 
vanced^ and they are not likely to be affected injuriously 
by that special study. So careful are the instructors in 
this respect that the treatises on marriage and the sixth 
commandment^ known as the Diaconale — that is^ that 
portion of theology studied only after the student has 
entered into deacon^s orders — are kept away from the 
novice^ like the custom among the Jews^ who forbade 
the reading of the " Canticle of Canticles'^ until a cer- 
tain age had been attained. 

Kept away fuom the Studext. — The great aim 
is to keep young men away from tliat kind of theology. 
It is not taught in classes. In the seminaries in Kome 
it is not taught at all. But Avhen they go out to as- 
sume the duties of the priest they have these works to 
consult when occasion requires. 

The priest beginning his mission must know some- 
thing about souls;, their trials^ and their needs. There 
is no such thing (and it is a pity there is not) as ready 
made experience in any calling. The young priest must 
be qualified to guide his penitents. Otherwise it is the 
blind leading the blind. His knowledge he must gain 
from books. 

Case of the Phystciak a:n"d Surgeon. — Is it not 
the same with the physician and surgeon? Would any 
sane person advocate the burning of every book of med- 
icine or surgery that treated of certain diseases and 
delicate matters^ on the ground that they tended to cor- 
rupt the student? Is it not just as illogical to say^ de- 
stroy these special theological works^ they are danger- 
ous^ as to say^ destroy the medical books, they are 
vicious? 



86 ^ llie Confessional. 

The new priest is specially instructed that the moral 
theology questions are not to be asked on those delicate 
subjects. Theologians lay down the rule that jt is 
better that the penitent even omit some sins rather than 
that there shall be any risk run of corrupting the young 
mind bj^ suggesting certain sins. 

Guarding Children. — In the case of the child the 
rule is laid down that the confessor shonld be'so careful 
that he shonld not leave the least bad impression after 
confession^ and that the confession should be imperfect 
rather than that the confessor should touch upon what 
was not known before. 

There is nothing in the whole practice of the Church 
in which she is more careful than in this matter of the 
confessional. 

But supposing a priest should be so utterly depraved 
as to wish to corrupt souls, at the very beginning he 
would run the danger of involving himself in much 
difficulty. The discipline of the Church has provided 
for such a contingency. In the punishment awarded 
both parties are included. The moment a confessor sug- 
gests a sin to a penitent, that instant his jurisdiction 
over it ceases. He has no power to absolve from that 
particular sin, and the penitent must seek another con- 
fessor. These are facts that Protestants should know. 
CA:Nro:N-iCAL Censures. — In 1869 Pope Pius IX. 
ordered the theologians to go over the censures of the 
Church and make out a list of them. In Chapter 4 it is 
decreed that excommunication is incurred, ipso facto, 
by the person concurring in the sin, ^^by those who 
neglect, or who culpably omit to denounce, within a 
month, the confessor or priest by whom they have been 
solicited to acts of wickedness.^^ These cases are ex- 
pressed in the Constitution of Gregory XY., August, 



The Confess ionaL 8/ 

1622, and in that of Benedict XIV., June 1, 1741. 
Benedict XIV., says: — ^ 

" Priests, whether secular or regular, however exempt 
from the authority of the bishops, of whatsoever dignity 
or prominence they may be, who will urge any penitent 
— no matter who the person, man or women — either in 
the act of sacramental confession, or before it, or imme- 
diately after it, on the occasion of confession, or pretext 
of confession, or outside of the occasion of confession, 
in the confessional, or in any place appointed for the 
hearing of confession under the pretence of hearing 
confession there, to acts of wickedness, or who will 
attempt to solicit to acts of wickedness, or to solicit or 
to urge by words, signs, or nods, by touch, by writing 
to be read then or afterward, or Avho will have had with 
such persons improper and wicked conversations, are 
immediately deprived of jurisdiction over that person to 
absolve, and the person so solicited is obliged, within 
one month from the time of knowing the obligation, 
to denounce such confessor to the bishop.''^ 

The Penitent's Plain Duty. — Can anything be 
stronger or plainer than this ? The person solicited is 
obliged to go before the bishop, and if the person does 
not, then he or she incurs excommunication. The 
bishop explains the canon law to the penitent and states 
that, if the person is telling an untruth, the sin is so 
great that no one except the Pope can give absolution. 
The person's statement is taken down under oath and 
the name of the confessor is exacted. The priest is then 
warned and on a third offence incurs perpetual punish- 
ment, which the Church has the power to inflict, and 
can never again say Mass. 

The rule in Canon Law is that nothing can be estab- 
lished except by two or three witnesses, following the 



88 The Confessional, 

direction of St. Paul. It is easily niiclerstood how wo- 
men may be jealous and induced to make false accusa- 
tions. It is only one person's Avord against another, but 
two or three establisli the case. 

Seal of Coxfesstox.— On the other hand, the seal 
of confession is always maintained. If a third party 
makes an accusation against a priest the confessor is 
never asked the name of a penitent and there is not a 
single instance of violation of the seal on record. But 
if the penitent will not give the name of the priest that 
person cannot obtain absolution. 

Can the Church do more than this to keep the wolves 
from the fold? 

St. Alphonsus Liguori, although by some regarded as 
a lax theologian, is most severe on impurity. Every act 
of his life, every w^ord he has written, proves how dear 
to him was chastity. But some fanatical, misguided 
Protestants call him the corrupter of youth. When his 
followers, the Eedemptorist Fathers, first entered 
Austria, they found that fornication and adultery were 
so common as not to cause comment. These sins they 
set themselves to denounce at once, and so vigorously 
did they do so, that they incurred the severest persecution, 
and it w^as sought to drive them from the Empire. If 
St. Liguori had taught otherwise the Eedemptorists 
would not have subjected themselves, in the cause of 
virtue, to so much suffering. It is a good thing to 
know a little history when entering into a controversy. 

Ix THE Frexch Eevolutiox^. — When the teachings 
of Voltaire, Rousseau^ and the so-called philosophers of 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries culminated 
in the French Revolution, when the streets ran with 
the blood of the innocent, who were the most numerous 
victims? The priests and the nuns. If those women 



The CojifessionaL 89 

were as depraved as fanatical Protestants aver^ would 
they have so readily given up their life when they could 
have easily escaj^ed by ministering to the passions of 
their tyrants. Tlie religious Avonien of France emulated 
the intrepidity of the priests in the prisons and on the 
scaffold; and tliose whom the revolutionary tempest had 
dispersed among foreign nations, and even in America, 
far from yielding to the most dangerous seducements, 
were everywhere admired for their attachment to their 
state of life, their respect for their vows, and the volun- 
tary exercise of every virtue. 

A Protestant who makes a sincere inquiry into the 
practice of confession will find that his objections are 
ill grounded. How^ many have recourse to a lawyer to 
be guided in the most delicate affairs of life. To him 
clients will lay bare all their secrets, fearing to with- 
hold anything lest, in doing so, their lawyer w^ould not 
be able to give the best counsel, and the interests of the 
client suffer. Any veteran counsellor will tell you that 
women are fonder of going to law than the men are. 
It is also a fact that they do not so readily disclose 
everything as the stronger sex do, but then the task of 
the lawyer is easier in finding out from women all that 
he wants or needs to know. 

Compared with Lawyers — Now the newspapers 
have published many and many a sad tale of the abuse 
of their position by lawyers. Numerous scandals have 
arisen from the intercourse of lawyer and female client. 
Married men as well as single men have taken advan- 
tage of their position and the confidence reposed in 
them to seduce, elope with, commit bigamy with their 
fair clients, or defraud them of their property. And yet, 
how unreasonable it would be for any man or set of men 
to blame the legal profession in general for the guilt 



90 The ConfessionaL 

of some of its members? How absurd it would be to 
petition a legislature to abolish the legal profession? 

The Disi:n'terested Priest and Judge. — The 
priest is the counsellor of the soul. It is still more un- 
reasonable^ more absurd, to clamor for the abolition of 
his office. The troubled heart, the sinful soul, the 
doubting mind must turn to some one for comfort and 
for guidance. Who better fitted to afford it than the 
priest, who is specially trained, mentally and spiritually, 
for such a purpose? The Church protects the sinner 
against self-delusion — for he who is his own lawj^er has 
a fool for his client. There are ill-gotten goods to be 
restored, reconciliation is to be made with enemies, for- 
giveness of injuries to be insisted on, calumny to be 
retracted, and the occasions of sin to be avoided, and all 
these things the confessor knows how to adjust, and is 
not prejudiced by self-interest or the hope of pecuniary 
reward,, as the lawyer or a lay person would be. 

A Laborious Duty. — At the same time, as has been 
well observed by writers on this subject, the priest 
affords the best protection against despair or indiscreet 
zeal. There is little in the laborious work of the con- 
fessional to satisfy curiosity, for the priest learns noth- 
ing except the number and species of sins committed, 
and he is bound, under the most sacred obligations, to 
abstain from all unnecessary questions, particularly 
from all such as might convey knowledge of sins pre- 
viously unknown to the penitent. " He has,^^ says an 
authority, "' to decide according to the principles of an 
elaborate casuistry, which he has studied for years, and 
in which he has been examined by his superiors, before 
he enters the confessional. There is little room for 
tyranny on his part, for the faithful know well that they 
may have recourse to any approved pastor. ^^ 



# 
The L onjcssiojial. y I 

This is the very hardest work a priest has to perform 
—harder even than going out in a storm^ or in the 
bitter cold on a winter's night, to a sick call. It is a 
fearful monotonous duty, and involves great self-deny- 
ing devotion. Seldom has the confessional been polluted 
by human weakness and sin. 



CHAPTER VII. 
Schismatical Churches. 

The Greek, Eussian, Armekia:n^, Coptic, and 
OTHERS— All have Married Priests, and Con- 

• SEQUENTLY A LOW CONDITION OF MORALS-— MeRE 

Puppets of the Government. 

It may be well here to glance at the churches which 
have separated from Eome. The great Greek schism 
has been the parent of others. It will be noted that every 
schismatical Church has married priests, and that the 
communities in which the schismatical married priests 
flourish have a low degree of civilization, and that the 
ruling powers in the different countifes make a mere 
puppet show of the state religion. 

The Greeks and Celibacy — But first we may rap- 
idly sketch the changes which the law of celibacy has 
undergone among the Greeks. In the time of the 
Church historian Socrates, (about 450) the same law 
of clerical celibacy which obtained among the Latins 
was observed in Thessaly, Macedonia, and Achaea. 
Further, the case of Synesius, in 410, proves that it was 
unusual for bishops to live as married men, for he had, 
on accepting his election as bishop, to make a stipula- 
tion that he should be allowed to live with his wife. 
The Synod of Trullo (692) required bishops, if married, 
to separate from their wives, and forbade clerics to 
marry after sub-deaconate. 



ScJiis}iiatical Chttrckes, 93 

A SLIGHT CoxcESSiox. — However^ a law of Leo the 
Wise^ (861-911) permitted such sub-deacons^ deacons, 
and priests who had married after receiving their re- 
spective orders, not, indeed, to exercise sacred functions, 
but still to remain in the ranks of the clergy and 
exercise such offices, e. g., matters of administration, as 
were consistent with the marriage which they had con- 
cluded. ^ 

The practical consequences of these enactments are 
(1) that Greek candidates for the j)riesthood usually 
leave the seminaries before being ordained deacons, and 
return having concluded marriage, commonly with 
daughters of clergymen ; (2) that secular priests live 
as married men, but cannot, on the death of their wife 
marry again; (3) that bishops are usually chosen from 
the monks. 

RUSSIAN AND RUTHENIAN CHURCHES. 

The Eussian Church is a sad examjDle of the degrada- 
tion into which a clergy may fall through a contempt 
for celibacy. We have devoted the chapter following 
this to a description of the schismatical Eussian Church. 

The Euthenians are descendants of converts from the 
Eussian Church, who have kept their old rites and 
dicipline. The name ^^ Euthenian Catholics^' is given 
to Christians who use the Greek liturgy translated into 
the Old Slavonic, but who render obedience to the Pojoe. 

The Metropolitan See of Kiev and its suffragan 
dioceses were united to the Catholic Church, but the 
union was never satisfactory and the last trace of it 
had disappeared early in the IGth century. The cause 
of union, however, was zealously promoted by the 
Jesuit school established at Vilna by Father Possevin, 
and bv the Polish King; Calixtus III. In 1595, the 



94 Schismatical Chttrches, 

Metroj)olitan of Kiev and seven suffragans were^ at 
their owii request^ received by Clement VIII. into tlie 
Catholic communion. 

Under Russian Dominion.— Thus the Ruthenian 
Province arose ; the Metropolitan was chosen by the 
bishops^ and all were placed under Propaganda^ which 
was represented by the Polish nuncio. But at the 
j)artition of Poland all the Catholic Ruthenian dioceses, 
excej)t Lemberg, Przemysl, and part of Brezk, became 
Russian dominion. In 1795, Russia suppressed all the 
dioceses but one ; in 1798, three dioceses were tolerated, 
a fourth in 1809, two only by Nicholas, in 1828. In 
1839, three bishops joined the schismatic Russians, and 
there was, till lately, only one see of the United Ruthe- 
nians in Russian Poland, viz., Chelm and Belz — imme- 
diately subject to the Pope. At ]3resent there is 
another bishopric— viz., Minsk — suffragan to Mohilew. 
There were, in 1865, about 250,000 Catholics of the 
Ruthenian rite in Russian Poland. The See of Suprasl 
was erected in 1799, for the Ruthenians in Prussian 
Poland ; they numbered about 40,000. 

In Austria. — In the Austrian Territory the See of 
Lemberg, with its suffragan sees of Przemysl, Sanek, 
and Sambor, belongs to the Ruthenian Church of 
Poland, and was united to the Catholic Church. The 
Metroi^olitan See of Lemberg was erected for the two 
millions of Ruthenian Catholics in Gallicia, by Pius 
VII., in 1807, Kalik and Kamenek being united to it. 
But besides this many schismatical Slavs in Hungary 
followed the examj^le set by their Polish brethren in 
L595. The union lasted only till 1G27, and though a 
Bishop of Munkacs became Catholic in 1G49, tlie 
population remained schismatic. More was done for 
the Catholic cause by tlio Rntlienian Bishop De Camillis 



Schismatical Ckurc/ies, 95 

at the end of the 17th century, and in 1771 the diocese 
of Munkacs was properly constituted by Clement XIV. 
The Catholic population amounts to 360,000 souls. In 
Croatia the Euthenians had one diocese, that of Kreutz, 
with 20,000 souls, erected in 1777, and subject to the 
Latin Metropolitan of Agram. 

The Euthenians have a married secular clergy and 
religious who follow the rule of St. Basil. The bishops 
are usually taken from the monks. The Euthenians 
are under the laws made by Propaganda for Catholics 
of Greek rite living among Latins. Their bishops at 
their consecration make the profession of faith pre- 
scribed for the Greeks by Urban YIII. The marriage 
of Euthenian priests has the same effect as elsewhere — 
the generation of indifference if not contempt in the 
people. 

THE ARMENIANS; 

The Armenian natioii was converted by their great 
apostle, Gregory the Illuminator, at the beginning of 
the fourth century. They became schismatics at the 
close of the sixtli century. A union between the 
Armenians and tlie orthodox Greeks was effected at a 
council at Charnum (Erzeroum), in 032, but did not 
last long. The Armenians held fast to the monophysite 
doctrine, that in Christ there was but one nature, and 
external differences increased the opposition between 
them and the Greeks. They maintained the old East- 
ern custom of celebrating Christ^s birth and his epiphany 
on one day — January 6th. They were charged by the 
Greeks with making the priestliood a caste, and only 
ordaining sons of priests, and. further, with a semi- 
Jewish practice of cookins: flosli in the sanctuarv and 
givino' portions, of it to tlie priests, 



96 Schismatical Cktcrc/ies. 

Head of the Arme^s^iaist Church. — The Catholicos, 
the highest ecclesiastical dignitary^ lives at Etchniazin^ 
which has belonged, since 1828, to Eussia. He is chosen 
from the metropolitans by the synod, with the consent 
of the Armenian bishops and of all Armenians present 
at the place, and the election must be confirmed by the 
Czar. It is his office to watch over religion and disci- 
pline; he consecrates the chrism for his bishops, which 
he does only once in seven years, and he can convene a 
national council. In matters of importance he must 
consult his synod. He is bishop of Ararat. 

The Catholicos is chiefly supj)orted by a poll tax on 
all adults within his diocese, contributions, stole-fees, 
etc., from the revenues of the monastery at Etchniazin, 
and the gifts of pilgrims to the shrine of St. Gregory. 
There are twelve archbishops and bishops, four varta- 
beds, (or doctors), 60 monks in priest^s orders, and 500 
other monks in the great monastery just mentioned. 
The archbishops, bishops, and archimandrites residing 
there form his synod. Deputies from the Armenian 
nation are added to their number at the election of a 
patriarch. 

The Patriarchs. —Next come the patriarchs, who 
are now almost independent of the Catholicos. The 
patriarchal sees arose from the constant change of the 
chief see during the disasters of the nation, and also 
from the Mongol invasion in the fourteenth century. 
The Patriarch of Constantinople holds the first rank 
among patriarchs, and is only inferior in name to the 
Catholicos. He is chosen by tlie Armenians, lay as well 
as clerical, at Constantinople, and gets his berat from 
the Porte. He can consecrate the holy oil, and can 
appoint and consecrate metropolitan bishops throughout 
the Turkish dominions, except at Jerusalem. The 



Schismatical Churches. 97 

Church property is under his control, but he must 
administer it with the advice of a synod of 20 lay 
members, chosen by the Porte. There are three other 
patriarchs with less power. 

The metropolitans, according to the canons, are 
empowered to consecrate their suffragans and the holy 
oils, but these rights are noAV reserved to the Catholicos, 
or else to the patriarch, and the metropolitans differ 
from other bishops only by insignia. A monk cannot, 
except by dispensation, become a bishop, and the bishops 
are usually chosen from the unmarried vartabeds or 
doctors. The patriarch may nominate, but usually the 
bishops are chosen by the clergy and fathers of families. 

Different Classes of Peiests.— The priests are di- 
vided into tAVO classes, that of the vartabeds or doctors, 
who are again subdivided into many grades and who 
remain unmarried, and the parish priests. The former 
are far more highly esteemed, and the esteem comes 
from the fact that they are strict celibates. A staff is 
the mark of their office, and their chief duty consists in 
preaching. They live by collections made after the 
sermon. The ordinary clergy are married. They are 
drawn from the humbler classes, and trained either by 
a parish priest or at a monastery. 

The Armenians have the same minor orders as the 
Latins, and like them, they reckon the subdeaconate 
among the greater orders. A priest is elected by the 
people, who, however, invariably accept the candidate 
proposed by the lay administrator of the church prop- 
erty. He must then be approved by the bishop. This 
and the fact that they usually marry causes them to have 
no weight in the community and very few have any 
great respect for them. They live by stole-fees and by 
offerings at Epiphany and Easter. They also get 



9 8 Schismatical Churches. 

subsidies from the fund for pious uses. But they are 
very poor and, generally, have to follow some trade. 

Armenian Monks. — The Armenian monks observe 
the rule of St. Basil, but their fasts are stricter than 
those of the Greek religious. They have many monas- 
teries, and at least one large convent of nuns, which is 
situated on Mount Zion. 

The whole number of Armenians is about 3,000,000, 
of whom about 2,400,000 are in Turkey. About 500, 
000 are in the Eussian Empire. 

ABYSSINIAN CHURCH. 

Superstition Eife. — The Abyssinian is another 
schismatical Church whose clergy are married. It 
became monophysite in the fifth century, following the 
example of many other Eastern Churches. The Abuna, 
or head of the Abyssinian Church, is always an Egyptian 
monk, nominated by the Patriarch of Egypt. As in the 
Greek Church, the priests can marry only once. Super- 
stition is rife among the Abyssinians, and morals and 
intellect are at a low ebb, 

COPTIC CHURCH. 

The Monopyhsite Christians in Egypt. — 
Dioscorus, the Patriarch of Alexandria, was deposed by 
the Council of Chalcedon, in 451, because he maintained 
there was only one nature in Christ. Orthodox patri- 
archs and other officials, ecclesiastical and civil, were sent 
from Constantinople to Egypt, but the mass of people 
were fanatically attached to monophysite error. Many 
fled to upper Egypt or took refuge among the Arabs, and 
at last, when the occasion came, the Copts betrayed 
Egypt to the Saracens, who drove Greeks and Eomans 
out of the land and for a time treated the Copts well. 



Schismatical Churches, 99 

But it was only for a time^ and under successive 
Mohammedan d^^nasties the Copts were subjected to 
cruel oppression and had to pay an extortionate price for 
leave to practise their religion. At present they form 
about one tenth of the population of the country. They 
represent the ancient inhabitants of Egypt and celebrate 
Mass in the old Coptic language. In doctrine they 
agree on the whole with Catholics^ except on the single 
point which led to their separation from the Church, viz._, 
the two natures of Christ. 

Allowed to Live With Theie Wives. — Their 
supreme head is the monophysite Patriarch of Alexan- 
dria, who has great authority and is chosen from the 
monks. Then come the bishops, priests, deacons, and 
inferior clergy of the Church. The priests are allowed to 
live with their wives and, as they receive scarcely any 
support from the Church, generally pursue an ordinary 
trade. They are obliged to acquire some knowledge 
of Coptic, for this, the language of the liturgy, is a 
dead language, Arabic being the vulgar tongue. 

They have four fasting seasons, which they observe with 
remarkable strictness. The principal peculiarity in their 
ritual is the administration of the sacrament of Extreme 
Unction, which they give along with the Sacrament of 
Penance, to heal the diseases of the soul. They have 
also a custom of blessing large tanks of water in which 
people bathe. They have adopted circumcision, probably 
to satisfy Mohammedan prejudice. 

The Egyptian Abbott Andrew went to the Council of 
Florence to seek reunion for the Monophy sites with 
the Eoman Church, but most of the Copts adhere to 
their heresy. There is, however, a Catholic Vicar- 
Apostolic of the Coptic rite for the courts of Egypt. 



lOO Schismatical Churches, 



THE MARONITES. 

There has been much dispute on the origin of the name, 
but the following is probably the true account. Maro, a 
Syrian monk, contemporary with St. Chrysostom, set- 
tled on Mount Lebanon, and after his death a monastery 
called after him, the Monastery of Saint Maro, was 
founded between Apamea and Emesa, on the Orontes. 
A monk belonging to this house and know^n as John 
Maro, was named bishop of Botrys, in 676, by Mecarius, 
Patriarch of Antioch, who was afterwards deposed, as a 
Monothelite, by the 6th General Council. John Maro 
thus became the spiritual and temporal head of the 
Christian population on Mount Lebanon, and contended 
successfully both against Saracens and Melchites. Part- 
ly from the John Maro, who died in 707, partly from 
St. Maro, the patron of the monastery, the Monothelite 
Christians on Mount Lebanon were called Maronites. 
In 1182 a Latin Patriarch of Antioch united them to 
the Catholic Church. 

The Schism healeu — A schism was caused through 
Greek influence, and a Maronite patriarch fell away. 
But the rent was healed in 1216, and ever since the 
Maronites have been steadfast Catholics. The patriarch 
is chosen by the bishops, the Pope confirming and send- 
ing the pallium. He is subject to Propaganda. He 
appoints and consecrates the bishops. He also conse- 
crates the Holy Oils and chrisms. His income consists 
of 100,000 piastres from a poll-tax levied on all adult 
Maronites, a tax of five piastres each levied from the 
priests^ titles, and a subsidy from bishops and religious 
houses. The parish priests, usually married, are chosen 
by the people. There are 300 parishes, 500 secular 
priests. The parish priest is allowed to till land, and 



Schismatical Churches. loi 

his income consists in offerings of corn, oil, silk, and 
stole fees. 

There are three lower or minor orders, viz,, psaltist, 
reader, and sub-deacon; three greater or higher, deacon, 
priest, bishop. The tonsure is given before the minor 
orders. There are three general and several diocesan 
seminaries, the latter of recent origin. There is also a 
Maronite College at Eome. 

Makoxite Educatio:n^ — Education is given in Arabic, 
the vulgar, and in Syriac, the liturgical language, and 
also, of course, in the theological sciences. 

The Maronite religion follows the rule of St. Antony. 
Down to 1757 there were only two congregations/ 
one of St. Isaias, another of St. Antony. Fourteen mon- 
asteries belong to the congregation of St. Isaias, in which 
there are about 1,000 lay brothers and 600 Fathers. 
There are seven nunneries of the strict observance. 
There are also many irregular monasteries and nunneries, 
where the rule is less strict, and the superior must be- 
long to the founder's family. In one convent of Maro- 
nite Nuns a Western rule, that of the Visitation, is 
observed. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
The Russian Church.. 

Its Great Wealth — Divided ikto Sects — Marri- 
age Amo:s^g its Clergy — A Hindrance to 
Sa^^ctity and Zeal — Priests Living in Luxury 
AND Despised by the People— Inclined to 
Protestantism. 

Gibbon does not hesitate to call the Russians ^^ the 
most ignorant and most superstitions followers of the 
Greek communion/' Nevertheless, they are a great 
people with great qualities, but their progress in civili- 
zation has been retarded by the schism which has 
withdrawn them from the humanizing influence of the 
Roman Pontiff. 

Methodius, Archbishop of Twer, published in 1805 an 
historical work, in Latin, on the first four ages of 
Christianity, and in it he says that a great portion of the 
Russian clergy is Calvinist. Notwithstanding the great 
affinity of doctrines between the Roman and the Greek 
Churches, yet the Russian studies no other than 
Protestant books. Philaret, a patriarch of Moscow, a 
man of talent and cultivated mind, formed a school of 
theologians imbued with the spirit of Protestantism. 
He issued a catechism and a review of the controversies 
between East and West. The Russians know little about 
Catholic theologians, but read and study Germans like 
Neander and Schleiermacher, and there is a constant 



The Russian Chtcrch, 103 

tendency to soften the points between themselves and 
Protestants^ and to accentuate those which separate 
Eussians from Catholics. 

The Eussian Church was first severed from the Eoman 
in the eleventh century^ by the schism of Michael 
Caerularius. Subsequently it took its religion from 
Constantinople. While under the Mongolian yoke, 
several attempts were made to unite again with the Holy 
See at Eome, but in vain. 

Population and Ckeeds. — The total population of 
all the Eussians is nearly 85,000,000. The various 
creeds of European Eussia were estimated, in 1879, as 
follows : 

Greek Orthodox, - - - - - 51,835,000 
Easkolnics (Schismatics), - - - 12,000,000 
United Greeks and Armenio Gregorians, 2,950,000 

Jews, - - 3,000,000 

Moslems, 2,600,000 

Pagans, 26,000 

In 1881, the number of Greek Orthodox throughout 
the Empire, excluding two foreign bishoprics, was es- 
timated at 61,941,000. 

Gee AT Wealth. — In 1882 there were in Eussia 
40,569 orthodox churches and about 14,000 chapels^ 
with 37,318 priests, 7009 deacons, and 45,395 singers. 
There were also 6752 monks, and 3957 aspirants, 4945 
nuns, and 13,803 female aspirants. The Church budget 
was 18,974,887 roubles (about $14,500,000) in 1884. 
The monasteries and churches are possessed of great 
wealth, including 2,950 square miles of land (a territory 
greater than that of Oldenburg) an invested capital of 
22,634,000 roubles (about $17,500,000), an annual 
subsidy of 408,000 roubles (about $320,000) from Gov- 
erment, and a very great number of inns, shops, printing 



IC4 The Russian Church. 

establishments^ burial grounds^ etc., with whole towns 
covering an aggregate area of 10^ squares miles. Their 
total annual revenue is estimated at 9,000,000 roubles 
(about $7,000,000). 

The word Eascolnic in the Russian language signifies 
literally schismatic. The schism designated by this 
generical expression originated in the ancient translation 
of the Bible, to which the Eascolnics cling tenaciously, 
and which contains texts that, according to them, are 
altered in the version made use of by the Russian 
Church. On this ground they call themselves (and who 
may hinder them?) men of the ancient faith, or old 
believers (slaroversi). Whenever the people, possessing, 
unfortunately for themselves, the Holy Scriptures in the 
vulgar tongue, persist in reading and interpreting them, 
no aberration of private judgment need astonish. It 
would be too long to relate in detail the numerous 
superstitions which have been added to the original 
grievances of these bewildered men. The sect, soon 
after its commencement, was divided and subdived, as 
always happens, to such a degree, that at this moment 
there are in Russia perhaps forty sects of Rascolnics. 
All are extravagant, amd some abominable. Besides, 
the Rascolnics protest en masse against the Russian 
Church, as the latter protests against the Roman. The 
motive, the argument, the right, are the same on both 
sides, so that any complaint on the part of the prevailing 
authority would be ridiculous. 

Neither Shocks nor Alarms. — Rascolnism neither 
alarms nor shocks the nation at large, any more than 
other false religions ; the higher classes think of it only 
to make sport of it. As for the priesthood, it never 
undertakes anything against the dissenters, because it 
knows its weakness, and that, moreover, the spirit of pro- 



The Russian Chzirck, 105 

selytizing must be essentially wanting to it. Kascolnism 
does not extend beyond the ranks of the people ; but 
the people is really something, even if its members 
amounted only to thirty millions. Men who profess to 
be well informed already estimate the number of these 
sectaries at nearly the seventh of the whole people. The 
government, which alone knows what to think on the 
matter, says nothing about it^ and it does well. It, more- 
over, treats the Rascolnics with unequalled prudence^ 
moderation, and goodness; and^ even although unfor- 
tunate consequences should be the result, it would 
always find consolation in the reflection that severity 
would not have succeeded better. 

Everywhere the clergy are married and without influ- 
ence. The Nonconformists form a strong body in 
Eussia, and Protestant doctrines are popular among 
them. . The rationalist sects spread in North and AVest 
Russia in the fourteenth century, and greatly increased 
in the sixteenth. They have given rise to various bod- 
ies which deny the Divinity of Christ or explain away 
various dogmas and prescriiycions of orthodoxy. ^^ Pro- 
testantism,^^ says W. E. Morfill, M. A., ^^ with its 
more or less rationalistic tendencies, has made itself 
increasingly felt^ especially during the present century, 
and in Southern Eussia. ^^ Another tendency pervading 
the whole of Eussian nonconformity is that which seeks 
a return to communistic principles. 

Markiage a^^d the Sects. — All sects deal more or 
less with the question of marriage and the position of 
woman. A few of them solve it by encouraging — at 
least during their '^ love feasts, ^'' — absolutely free rela- 
tions between all "^"^ brethren and sisters.'^ Noncon- 
formity, which formerly had no hold upon Little 
Eussia, has suddenly begun to make progress there in 



io6 The Ritssian Church. 

the shape of the '' Stunda/^ a mixture of Protestant and 
rationalistic teachings with tendencies towards a social 
but rarely socialistic reformation. 

The discipline of the Eussian Church has undergone 
many changes. In the Middle Ages the Metropolitan 
of Russia was nominated by the Duke, and consecrated 
by the Patriarch of Constantinople. Once consecrated, 
the Metropolitan had immense power, even in secular 
matters. The bishops were well supported by tithes, 
and held secular jurisdiction in their own lands, and no 
prince could engage in war, until a bishop had given his 
blessing. 

Since the time of Catherine II. (who seized all the 
Church property) the Russian Church has been sup- 
ported by the State. Its synod, which consists of 
twelve members, is nominated by the Czar, and the 
members removed at will. The Czar is therefore the 
Pope. 

Bishops chosek from Mokks. — The bishops are all 
unmarried, and are therefore chosen from among the 
monks. This proves that there is a glimmering idea that 
celibacy is the proper state for a clergy. The '' white ^^ 
or secular clergy must all be married, and are mostly 
sons of priests. They begin their education at the 
parish school, continue it at the parish school and 
diocesan seminary, and finish at one of the four ecclesi- 
astical academies. Three or four years are spent at one 
of these stages. The benefices are all conferred by the 
bishop, except that landed proprietors have often aright 
of patronage in country churches. 

A canon of the fifteenth century required a priest who 
lost his wife to live like a layman in a monastery. 
This law of enforced seclusion was set aside by Peter 
the Great. A widowed priest may now get leave from 



The Russian Church. 107 

the synod to officiate as before ; and even in the case of 
second marriage, an edict of Peter the Great, in 1724, 
permits a priest to be employed as rector of a seminary, 
or in the episcopal chancery, if he has applied himself 
diligently to study, and especially to preaching. 

The Kussian religions follow the rule of St. Basil. 
Men must not be professed till they are forty, and 
women till they are fifty. The novitiate lasts three 
years, and is followed by another period of probation. 
The discipline is strict, and only a few monks receive 
holy orders. Kegular priests never have parishes. 

The Poles Resist Maekiage. — In 1842 it was sought 
to introduce priestly marriage in Russian Poland. A 
priest of the day named Taillard strenuously opposed it, 
and in his arguments affirmed that, if celibacy had not 
been compulsory in the primitive Church, it ought to 
have been. '' If the celibacy of the priesthood, ^^ he said, 
" be not from the beginning of Christianity, it ought to 
have been there, for, as our holy religibn comes from 
God, it should contain in itself all the means possible to 
elevate the nations to the highest point of liberty and 
happiness."^ . 

Father Gagarin, of the Society of Jesus, who has 
made a thorough investigation into the state of the 
modern Russian Church, very properly observes that 
the situation of the Russian clergy is but imperfectly 
known out of Russia. Protestants do not seek to know 
because they do not want to know. 

Priesthood a Caste. — Father Gagarin proves that 
the priesthood in Russia has become a caste. The son 
of a priest or deacon is destined from his birth to enter 
the clerical ranks. It is an obligation from which he is 
not permitted to withdraw himself. On the other hand 
the son of a nobleman, merchant, citizen, or peasant 



io8 The Russian Church. 

who desired to become a priest would meet with insur- 
mountable difficulties. 

Daughters to be Settled. — Marriage before ordi- 
nation used to be licensed; finally it became obligatory. 
^^ It seems at least/' says the French priest, ^^that the 
Seminarist, obliged to be married before receiving Holy 
Orders, must be free to choose his companion. But 
priests and deacons have daughters for whom settlement 
must be found; hence arose a prohibition from marrying 
out of the caste. There are some bishops who do not 
even tolerate their clergy marrying out of their diocesan 
clergy. By what right do you impose on the daughter of 
an ecclesiastic the obligation to become the wife of a 
priest or of a deacon? The inclination of her heart, 
social proprieties, the blessipg of her parents, cannot 
these point out to her elsewhere a happy path of life? 
Why, on his side, should not the son of a priest find a 
companion in the family of a decent employe of one 
of the lower gentry, of a rich peasant, of a citizen, of a 
tradesman? '^ 

Another curious thing is that the houses exclusively 
appropriated to the education of the daughtjers of eccle- 
siastics are nothing more than boarding schools to 
educate daughters to become the wives of priests. 

A Priest as a Good " Match.'' — '' Without speaking 
of the prescriptions of the Canon Law/^ says Father 
Gagarin, " who does not see the very great difference 
between a married man clothed with the sacerdotal 
character, and a priest in whom mothers and their 
daughters might see a matcli, or who himself, among the 
young people with whom his functions bring him in 
contact, might look for one to whom he could offer his 
heart and hand, and pay his courtship? In such a situa- 
tion, what would become of confession?'' 



The Russian Chu7xh, 109 

Luxury. — In 1872 there was published in Leipsic a 
book, written in the Eussian Language, on the White 
and Black Clergy of Kussia. The author shows that 
the priests were living on the ^^fat of the land/^ 
Speaking of the cures of the principal parishes of the 
capital, he says: — 

'^The cures of Petersburg have not to trouble 
themselves about their dwelling ; apartments are grat- 
uitously provided for them, such as could not be rented 
for less than $800, $1,200, or $1,600 a year. The 
furniture is drawn from the first shops of Petersburg. 
Eich carpets cover the floors of the drawing room, study, 
and chamber; the windows display fine hangings; the 
walls, valuable pictures. Footmen in livery are not 
rarely seen in the anteroom. The dinners given by 
these cures are highly a]3preciated by the most delicate 
epicures. Occasionally their salons are open for a 
soiree or a ball; ordinarily it is on the occasion of a 
wedding, or the birth-day of the cure, or on the patron 
saint^s day. The apartments are then magnificently 
lighted up; the toilettes of the ladies are dazzling; the 
dancing is to the music of an orchestra of from seven to 
ten musicians. At sujoper the table is spread with 
delicacies, and champagne flows in streams. A Peters- 
burg cure, recently deceased, loved to relate that at his 
daughter's nuptials champagne was drunk to the value 
of 300 roubles ($240). '^ 

Gives Balls akd Parties. — The same book just 
quoted from states that in the provinces, though the 
clerical display is less grand, yet it is greater than is 
seen in any other profession in the locality. The cure 
clothes himself in the finest, and his wife and daughters 
are walking advertisements of the milliner's art. ^^The 
reverend gentleman/' says the anonymous author^ 



I lo The Russian Church. 

*^ gives at his parsonage soirees and balls, at the latter 
of which the daughters of priests dance with the young 
men of the Seminaries, to the great scandal of the 
superiors of those institutions!^^ (sic,^ 

The sympathetic writer goes on to commiserate the 
country priests, who ^"^ are forced to accompany, bare- 
headed/'' a dead body to the cemetery, and to ^*^ confess 
rude and ignorant people/" Well, confession in the coun- 
try more than once a year is something almost unheard of. 

One of the scandals of the Eussian Church is that the 
penitent, on receiving absolution, by custom gives money 
to the confessor. In tow^ns this sum frequently rises to 
$1, $2, and $4, sometimes to much more. In the village 
the peasant offers only a kopec, about one cent, but on 
receiving communion he is obliged to renew his offering 
for prayers before communion, at the moment of com- 
munion, after communion, and for having his name 
enrolled, etc. 

SouKCES OF Keyekue. — A source of revenue to the 
priest are the prayers chanted at home in every house 
in the parish, many times a year. Often enough, says 
Father Gagarin, in spite of all the prohibitions of the 
Synod, the wives and children of the priests, deacons, 
and clerks accompany their husbands and fathers, and 
stretch out their hands also. " The worst of all this is 
that the Eussian peasant, while long disputing merely 
about a few centimes, will think himself insulted unless 
the priest accept a glass of brandy. And when the 
circuit of all the houses in the village has to be made, 
though he stay only a few minutes in each, this last gift 
is not without its inconveniences."" 

Chaeacter or the Priesthood. — In a few sentences 
Father Gagarin pictures the character of the Eussian 
priesthood. Says the French priest : — 



Tho Russian Church. 1 1 1 

" In the Catholic clergy there can exist abuses and 
disorders ; there have been and still are, more or less, 
according to different countries. Without going far, for 
example, the joy we feel from the marvelous transforma- 
tion wrought under our eyes in the German clergy must 
not make us forget the tears wrung from us 40 or 50 
years ago /^ (He was writing in 1872.) ^^I admit it; 
but in spite of that, I do not believe that there is in the 
Catholic Church, or even in the Protestant Churches, a 
clergy fallen so low" as the Kussian, and which answers 
so little to what we might justly expect it to be. This 
unhappy clergy appears to have reached the point of 
self -persuasion that all its duties are fulfilled in chant- 
ing the offices. As to making Jesus Christ known and 
loved, or pointing out to souls the way to tread in his 
footsteps, it does not even dream of such a thing. The 
salvation of souls redeemed by Jesus Christ at the price 
of his own blood concerns it not ; its thought goes not 
beyond a few formalities understood after a Jewish 
fashion. * * * Where must we look for the root of the 
evil ? In the vicious organization of the clergy ; in this 
obligation of marriage imposed on all the aspirants to 
the priesthood— an obligation known to the canon law 
of the East, and which has resulted in making the 
clergy an hereditary caste. ^^ 

Students made Druistk. — In his chapter on the 
^^ Black Clergy, ^^ Father Gagarin says that ecclesiastical 
authority uses every means to determine a certain 
number of academic pupils to embrace the monastic 
life. He cites an example of a student having been 
made intoxicated and in that condition receiving the 
tonsure and making his religious profession. 

'^ The academic pupils/^ he says, " do^ not scruple to 
frequent the caf6s, restaurants, and public houses of the 



112 7 he Russian Church. 

neighborhood. There they are sometimes so intoxicated 
as to lose all consciousness, and are obliged to be carried 
home to the academy on a hand-barrow. When it is 
desired to induce one of these students to embrace the 
religious life spite of his repugnance, they watch that 
he become in his turn the hero of one of these orgies. 
The superior is ready to pardon, to forget everything, if 
the oJGPender give him evidence of a sincere repentance. 
Of this he accepts but one proof — the signature of the 
student to a paper containing a request that he be al- 
lowed to make his religious profession.'^ 

False Sweari^^g. — Father Gagarin states that many 
a young man finishes his studies at 25, some at 23, some 
at 19. According to the law an academy pupil must 
be 25 before he can pronounce his vows. The religious 
superiors falsify the age to bring about his profession — 
they ^'^ commit a sin rather than violate an imperial 
ordinance, which could easily be repealed or dispensed 
from. But, in their eyes, a ukase is more inviolable 
than a commandment of God.""* 

Those who do not finish their studies before thirty 
years of age are left to do as they please. There 
is no one to guide or counsel them. When they are 
weary behind the cloister walls there is always the 
means of exit, with or without permission, by day or 
night. 

As to the bishops in Eussia they are mere figure-heads. 
Of rural authority and influence they have none. Pas- 
toral letters are never heard of, and the discourses they 
pronounce on solemn occasions no one cares about. As 
bishops they do not exercise in their plenitude their 
imprescriptible rights. ^'^They must allow us to say, 
they are not .truly bishops, but mitred functionaries/^ 
says the Abbe Jager, 



The Russian Church. 113 

Revealikg Secrets of the Confessional. — As a 
result of this kind of education the Russian clergy have 
never scrupled to reveal the secrets of the confessional. 
Nay, the " Spiritual Regulation ^' commands them to 
reveal certain things. The 11th and 12th rules say 
that^ if there be a plot against the emperor or the em- 
pire, or any machination against the honor or life of 
the emperor or his majesty^s family, and the penitent be 
unwilling to abandon it, the priest must reveal it. Or, 
if a false miracle be admitted as true and the author of 
the imposture come to confess it, without, however, 
wishing to reveal it, also in that case the confessor is 
bound to reveal the secret of the confessed and to de- 
nounce the guilty. 

How different is the practice in the Catholic Church. 
There have been bad priests, but not one has yet been 
known to have revealed the secrets of the confessional. 

Iksulting to Chastity. — ''The ''Spiritual Regula- 
tion,^^ says the Abbe Gagarin, '^ prescribes to confessors 
betrayal, forbids monks the use of the pen, insults 
the chastity of those virgins who wish to consecrate 
their virginity to God; it has no bowels of compassion 
for the poor, and we look in vain for a single word 
breathing love to God or our neighbor.'^ 

If the Eastern Church had maintained the same 
rigorous rule in regard to celibacy, this degeneracy of 
morals, as the Rev. Dr. Alzog points out, would not 
have occurred. 



CHAPTER IX. 
How Protestantism *'Ref or m e d . *^ 

Deplorable Effects of Luther^s Attacks oi^ Cler- 
ical Celibacy — Society in Germany uprooted 
—A Frightful Eeign of Immorality— 
What Dr. Dcellinger says. 

Some years ago ^^ Harper^s New Monthly Magazine ^^ 
printect^n attack upon the Papacy. The article con- 
tained many historical inaccuracies^ which have been 
copied and recently repeated elsewhere. I'or instance, 
it asserted that the law of celibacy originated with St. 
Gregory VII., and gave a fancy sketch of married 
priests and monks being declared polluted and de- 
graded, showing how they were ^^ branded with shame 
and ignominy. ^^ ^'^ Wives/'' it went on to say, ^^were 
torn from their devoted husbands, children were de- 
clared bastards, and the ruthless monk, in the face of 
the fiercest opposition, made celibacy the rule of the 
Church. ^^ 

Pretended Marriages. — As we have already abun- 
dantly proved, the celibacy of the clergy was the law of 
the Church and of the German Empire, and every 
priest knew it before taking orders, and so ^' Harper^s ^^ 
is very much in the wrong. These pretended marriages 
were, in both the ecclesiastical courts and the civil courts, 
no marriages at all, and these despairing wives of priests 
were simply concubines. As Orestes A» Brownson in 



How Protestantism '' Reformed, " 115 

his answer shows^ Gregory did his best to enforce the 
law which the emperors had suffered to fall into desue- 
tude. It is not claimed that every priest and every 
bishop in all ages of the Church was without stain. 
Such an assumption would be absurd. Even in the 
circle of the apostles which surrounded our Lord Him- 
self there was sin, the gravest, and much of it. There 
was a Judas Iscariot. 

Right of Investiture. — No, but the Church, as 
the agent of its Divine Founder, tried to inculcate the 
precepts imparted to her, and was always thundering in 
the cause of morality and charity. The right of the 
investiture of bishops was always in the Pope, and it 
was only by his authority that the emperors had ever 
exercised it. "^"^ The Pope,*' says Brownson, ^Miad au- 
thorized them to give investiture of bishops at a time 
of disorder, and it was for the good of the Church that 
they should be so authorized. But when they abused 
the trust, and used it only to fill the Sees with crea- 
tures of their own, or sold the investitures for money to 
the unworthy and the profligate, and intruded them 
into Sees, in violation of the canons, and sheltered 
them from the discipline of the Church — causing thus 
gross corruption of morals and of manners, the neglect 
of religious instruction, and dangers to souls — it was 
the right and the duty of the Pontiff to revoke the 
authorization given, to dismiss his unworthy agents, and 
to forbid the emperors henceforth to give investitures.^^ 

Eeforms of Gregory the Great. — When Gregory 
VII. was firmly seated on the throne, he at once set 
himself to reform the abuses and scandals of the Church, 
the existence of which he constantly deplored in letters. 
In one of his letters he said: — 

^^ The Eastern Church has lost the true faith, and is 



1 1 6 How Protestantism '' Reformed,'' 

now assailed on every side by infidels. In whatever 
direction one turns his eyes — to the West^ to the North, 
or to the South— everywhere are to be found bishops 
who have obtained the episcopal office in an irregular 
way ; whose lives and conversation are out of harmony 
with their calling ; who go through their duties not for 
love of Christ, but from motives of worldly ambition. 
* * * Those among whom I live — Romans, Lombards, 
and Normans — are, as I have often told them, worse 
than Jews and pagans/^ 

Reviving the Old Decrees. — Gregory began his 
work with the reformation of the clergy. He first of 
all assembled a numerously attended synod at Rome (A. 
D. 1074), and revived all the old decrees against incon- 
tinency — he did not originate, be it observed, he revived 
decrees already made — and enjoined their observance 
under the severest penalties. This he considered the 
only efficient means of restoring and preserving among 
the clergy the moral purity of life which their state 
demanded. In no other way could they be so detached 
from the world and worldly affairs, as to devote them- 
selves wholly to the services of the Church, or be 
completely independent of the state. Gregory was 
furiously opposed, but he made the people, in a measure, 
the executors of his will. Religiously minded men and 
women would have nothing to do with those priests who 
refused to yield obedience to the laws of the Church or 
to strengthen the authority of the Pope. 

Luther's ^'Reform.'' — Will Protestants, in the face 
of these historical facts, persist in asserting that the 
Popes never made an attempt to reform abuses that had 
crept into the Church ? But what sort of a reformation 
did the Protestants bring about ? Did they improve 
the morality of their times ? Did they make men and 



How Protestantis7n '' Reformed, " 117 

women better ? Let us see; let us hear the testimony 
of impartial witnesses. 

The founder of the Protestant religion^ Martin Luther^ 
even after he had abandoned the faith of his boyhood, 
did not take the matrimonial step without reluctance. 
Subsequently he made his doctrine upon the marriage 
of the clergy conform to the rest of his system. He 
taught that celibacy, inasmuch as its aim was ascetic, 
was not only not a divine precept, but was rather in 
opposition to the divine will. Consequently, he said, 
any one who made such a vow was a guilty person, and 
that when such a vow had been made it would and 
should be broken. 

Haters of Keligickn". — These principles of the so- 
called reformation were put into practice by thousands 
and taught from every Protestant pulpit. Haters of 
religion had said before Luther that the sensual instinct 
of man was a power absolutely uncontrollable. Luther 
taught that it was necessary to obey this power, that it 
was "2, holy act,^^ that no one ought to resist or refuse 
'to obey a requirement as great as eating, or drinking, or 
waking, or sleeping, that, God having said '^'^ Increase 
and multiply, ^^ therefore no one had been created to 
live in continence, and that perfect chastity was utterly 
impossible, unless God should perform a miracle. 

Ii^CREASE AND MULTIPLY. — It is scarccly necessary to 
pause to point out that the injunction of the Almighty, 
'^ increase and multiply, ^^ was given to the animals, the 
lower orders of creation, and not to man. But we must 
call particular attention to this remarkable utterance of 
the founder of Protestantism, and the advocate of 
priestly marriage: — 

^^ To be without a wife and to make a vow of chastity, 
while God does not see fit to perform a miracle, is just 



1 1 8 How Protestantism '' Reformed. '' 

as if one had made a vow to commit adultery or to 
break in some other way the divine law. Whosoever 
does not, con tract marriage cannot but fall into licen- 
tiousness: how can it be otherwise? ^^ 

Dk. Dcellikgek Q]^ the Eight Side. — Some years 
ago Protestantism thought it was about to get a chance 
to quote the learned Dr. DoUinger against the Church. 
The distinguished German^ however^ did not go to the 
length the enemies of the Pope thought he would. But 
we can quote Dr. Dollinger against the above passage 
from Luther. In his work on the Keformation and its 
results he comments in this passage: — 

'^ Therefore/^ says Dr. DoUinger^ ^^ Luther asserts 
that not to take a wife is an infraction of the divine 
law greater than committing adultery, robbery, or some 
other crime of that kind, that a person with all his fac- 
ulties who did not wed would incur the divine anger, 
and (horrible to say) in the case of an individual upon a 
bed of sickness, he was obliged to make at least a firm 
resolution to marry, if possible, before he breathed his 
last. Luther adds that a man cannot, without sin- 
ning, be estranged from woman; that, as a general rule, 
we cannot resist nature;. that, whatever we do, nature 
must have her way; that to bind one self by oath to be bar- 
ren, not to have children, is as if the sun had made a 
vow not to give light. * * * There is one thing worthy 
of remark, which is that the works in which Luther 
has given himself the most latitude on this subject are 
precisely those which he has composed for the people, 
and so the effects of his principles are felt more widely 
than doubtlessly he had thought, and probably this did 
not enter into his calculations. 

I]sj-FLUE]srcE OF Luther's TEACHINGS. — ^^ The in- 
fluence of his declarations, daily and rapidly propagated. 



How Protestantism '' Reformed, " 119 

was not exercised alone upon the secular clergy, upon 
the monks and the nuns, (but comparatively less upon 
the latter); it made itself felt upon that class, then as 
in our day, the most numerous, the members of which, 
through their peculiar way of living, their calling, 
their poverty, or other social circumstances, were not in 
a condition to marry and bring up a family, or who, at 
least, could not do so until well advanced in years, and 
who consequently passed the best years of their youth 
and their strength in enforced celibacy. These began 
to learn for their first time that this continent life, 
which until then had been required of them, was alto- 
gether an impossibility, and that to* resist the impulses 
of nature was not only beyond their power, but a spe- 
cies of rebellion againt the decrees of Providence. They 
saw in the new society everybody who had been bound 
by vows, even by vows freely made, making it a duty, 
following the example of the Reformers, to violate their 
vows in the face of the world, as if they were not and 
could not be valid, because, they alleged, one could not 
bind himself to do what was impossible, and could not 
be bound by a promise contrary to the eternal laws 
of nature. They were given innumerable pamphlets; 
they daily listened to sermons in which the state of vir- 
ginity and the superiority of a life vowed to chastity 
were not only combated and rejected, but even treated 
with ridicule and extravagance. They saw, in one 
word, how the principle ol the impossibility of chastity, 
once admitted, had a solvent action even upon the bonds 
of matrimony. 

'^ We can understand, without much trouble, that in 
a time of general excitement, where all kinds of means 
are employed to excite and entertain suspicion of the 
doctrine and discipline of the ancient Church, such 



I20 ' How Protestantism '' Reformed.'' 

a spectacle should have had a deep and lasting effect 
upon souls/^^ 

CiTiJSTG Authorities — Dr. Dollinger gives examples 
of the evil effects of the teachings of Luther and his 
followers on this subject^ and cites authorities: — * 
^'^ Another member of the university-body, the Eector 
Conrad Klauser of Zurich, said in 1554 that, in conse- 
quence of the implacable war waged against celibacy 
in Protestant society, people had come to attach not 
the least importance to continency and chastity/^ 

Like PAGAi;r Home — This is very much like the state 
of Eoman society when Christianity was first preached, 
and which, as we have shown elsewhere, the Eoman 
writers in, general, and satirists in particular, have 
pictured! "Well, history repeats itself in every case. 
Where there are no religious restraints, mankind is deep- 
ly sunk in sin. 

Dr. Dollinger continues: — '' It were preferable, without 
doubt, wrote Mathias Schenck, Eector of Augsburg, to 
Jerome Wolf, in 1571, if men who had devoted them- 
selves to the cultivation of the sciences were to live in 
celibacy; unfortunately, we have seen for a number of 
years past the opinion prevail that it is impossible for 
man to live a chaste life. What God said to our first 
parent — that it is not good for man to live alone — is ap- 
plied now, without exception, and to the great detriment 
of the public welfare, to all circumstances, and to all 
individuals who have attained the age of puberty, so 
that to-day any one who does not marry is looked upon 
but as a violator of the divine law/^ (Amoenitates 
litterariae, x. 1075). 

Youth horribly Corrupted. — He quotes Conrad 

* (Clauserus, de Educatione Puerorum. Basilese, 1554, p. T6). 



How Protestantism '' Reformed. '' 121 

Porra as sa\dng^ in 1580, that formerly young nrgins 
used to give themselves up to maceration and mortifica- 
tion the most severe, but that in the new state of 
society young girls were more remarkable for impatience, 
shamelessness, and lewdness; clandestine and guilty 
meetings had become so common that people hardly 
regarded them as reprehensible ; that boys and girls 
conducted themselves with the greatest licence; that 
generally people married to be able the , more freely to 
give themselves up to their passions, and that a gr^at 
number, after having appropriated the property of 
.others, ^^ took to their heels''^ and conducted themselves, 
under the guise of marriage, like Bohemians and Turks. 
(Porta, Jungfrauen-Spiegel; 'f . 1 et seq., 95, 225.) 

Everybody wa:n"tixg to Wed. — ''The want of cir- 
cumspection,^^ says Dr. Dollinger, " and the rapid spread 
of lust, of shamelessness, of libertinism, and of adultery, 
were in the very first days of the Eeformation subjects 
for lament on the part of German reformers. ' Scarcely 
have the young men of to-day/ said Brenz in 1532, 
(Brentii homilias, xxii., D.), 'divested themselves of 
their swaddling clothes, than they want to take a wife. 
Girls who are not j'Ct marriageable expect husbands, 
and priests, monks, nuns marry in violation of all 
human laws.^ Four years before, the * reformer ^ of the 
city of I"lm, Conrad Sam, had complained of the spread 
of debauchery, of the great number of adulteries, of the 
corrupt influence which was at work, and of the brag- 
ging way in which people seemed to talk of their 
wickedness. (Christliche Unterweisung der Jungen, 
etc., gepredigt zu ITlm in der Pfarr im 1528, D. 8.). 

Marriage Lightly Treated. — " In 1539 Bugen- 
hagen (Bugenhagen, von Ehesachen, vom Ehebruch und 
heimlichen Weglaufen, Wittenberg 1540, E. 2, 4 ; von 



122 How Protestantism '' Reformed. '' 

mancherlei Christ. Sachen^ i., 455.) said: — ^ Do you not 
see with what levity they treat marriage and how wicked 
men make light of bringing dishonor into families and 
laughingly say they are "^ gallants/ Hucky/ ^welcome to 
ladies?'' * * * Link, a colleague of Osiander, (1537) 
confessed that in his time so little importance was at- 
tached to impurity that everywhere it was the subject 
for joking." 

In a note Dr. Dollinger says : — ^^ In other passages 
Luther comes very near approving of polygamy. ' It is 
not written/ said he, ^that man shall not have more 
than one wife. If it is a question for men to pronounce 
upon, then I would not condemn now, nor yet would I 
advise it.^ But in his table'talk he declares that concu- 
binage is a true marriage before God, by no means 
prejudicial although scandalous." 

, Luther Eeproved. — George, Duke of Saxony, re- 
proached the reformer of Wittenberg, in 1526, in t^ie fol- 
lowing manner: — 

" When did we see wives leave their husbands and 
give themselves up to others, as we see them, under 
your gospel, do now? When was adultery as common 
since you advised and wrote this: — ^ Let a wife who is 
barren with her husband take to another man, that she 
may have children to rear and vice versa ^ 9 What a 
gospel have you boasted of having given to the world ! " 
(Edit, de Jena, 1556, iii., 211.) 

Numberless Souls Lost. — Dr. Dollinger quotes 
Wizel as follows, (Evangelium Luthers, D. 4); — ^^ Truly, 
Luther has done so well by his preaching that we have 
come to regard it as impossible to live and work out our 
salvation without marriage, yet this new prophet having 
been the cause of so many foolish unions, of the dis- 
solution of a great many others, of the increase of 



How Protestantism '' Reformed. '' 123 

women of ill-fame and of xxien leading bad lives^ recants 
and chides his preachers, instead of rewarding them for 
the energy with which they have propagated his doctrine. 
What is the use of long phrases? He has expressed 
himself with so much grossness and immodesty upon 
this delicate subject, that many souls have been lost, the 
like of which has never yet been seen. Through his 
attacks and his steady incitements numbers of poor 
monks and unfortunate nuns have broken their vows 
and married and are to-day sunk in the depths of re- 
morse, while he cares not so long as his own wants are 
satisfied. ^^ ' . ^ 

'' PROTESTAKTDEMOEALizATioisr.''' — " The facts," says 
Dr. DoUinger, ^^bear out the assertions of Wizel upon 
the natural eifects of the doctrine of Luther. When, 
thirty years later, Sylvester Ezecanovius published the 
result of his observations upon the state of morality in 
the two Churches, in the papal Church and ' in the Evan- 
gelical," he also confirms all that had been said before 
him upon Protestant demoralization, and expressly lays 
the greater part of the responsibility upon this very 
doctrine of the leader of the Reformation. Whilst 
marriage was considered a sacrament, modesty and 
morality reigned in the family ; but when people read 
in the books of Luther that marriage was a human in- 
vention, and in those of Melanchthon that it was foolish, 
a human trifle, these principles have been put into 
practice, and to-day marriage is more honored and more 
decent among the Turks than among the Evangelicals of 
Germany."^ 

A Shameful Practice. — ''Will any one tell me,^^ 
says Ezecanovius, '^ after having read the statements of 
history, if he has seen in any age the dissolution of 
marriage more shamefully advocated, and in more forms. 



124 How Protestantism '' Reformed^ 

than in the age in which we live ? Assuredly not^ never 
has been seen such libertinism. We cannot but be 
astonished when we see^ as is the case among us^ this 
strange maxim of Luther set forth as a divine law — 
that man can no more live in continence than he can 
abstain from expectorating^ and that he is as much 
bound to take a wife as to eat and drink. It was Nero, 
the Pagan, Nero, the tyrant; who was the firsl to hoist 
the standard of incontinence, and who, from the depths 
of infamous voluptuousness into which he had plunged, 
decreed the impossibility of youth and maiden, man or 
woman, if they were perfect beings, not following the 
sexual instinct. 

•It was Nero'^s Principle. — ^' This principle of 
Nero was revived by Luther and propagated by him 
throughout Germany, and all who eat, drink, and feel 
the spur of animal passions shamelessly hasten to place 
themselves under his banner. Young people are no 
longer afraid to live openly in lewdness; — would you 
withdraw them from that sink of iniquity? Then they 
cry out lustily for marriage, they demand that you give 
them a wife. And the young women, when they have 
fallen, or in some way led a vicious life, they know, as 
well as the young men, how to entrench themselves be- 
hind the Neronian law of Luther, that tyrant, who, 
judging others by himself, declared that chastity was 
impossible to man, and that indulging the sensual ap- 
petite was just as imperious and exacting as the neces- 
sity to renew our strength by eating and drinking. In 
accordance with these new views of marriage we see 
to-day mere boys and girls thus allying themselves. ^^ 
Degenerate Children. — Then Ezecanovius remarked 
sarcastically: — 

^^And from such unions are to spring those great 



How Protestantism '' Reformed !' 1 25 

heroes who are destined, by force of arms^ to chase the 
Turk back beyond the Caucasus, to give us an assurance 
of peace through their wise counsels, and without doubt 
to make the rest of Christendom participate in that 
golden age tQ which Germany is beholden for her 
splendor ! Truly this new theory of marriage justifies 
the Evangelicals in saying of themselves : ' We are 
born old men, whilst the Italians, the Spaniards, and 
the Portuguese are always young/ ^^ (Sylvester Ezeca- 
novius, de corruptis Moribus utriusque partis, Pontifici- 
orum videlicet et Evangelicorum, s. 1. et a. F. 3 seq.) 

MiKiSTEES CoMPAKED WITH Peiests. — Ministers, he 
adds, were not exempt from the general depravity. If 
the ministers had not greater facilities for concealing 
their backslidings than the Catholic prelates, (to whom 
others were constantly turning their attention, whilst 
nobody else thought it worth while to take notice of 
these heretics) we would see the marriage tie among the 
greater part of them, as well as among the bishops, 
broken. He relates the testimony of those who had 
inspected the Lutheran Churches. These people had 
told him that they had come across a greater number of 
shameful actions and of instances of adultery among 
the Lutheran clergy than they had ever found in the 
same space of time among the Catholics. The divorce 
cases, continues Ezecanovious, had become so common 
among the Evangelicals, that there could be no doubt 
that the false interpretation of the words of St. Paul — 
" But if they cannot contain, let them marry, for it is 
better to marry than to burn,^^ (I. Cor. vii., 9) — had 
already worked great harm. 

The disorders which the doctrine of Luther had 
brought about in matrimonial matters were precisely 
those, says Dr. Dollinger, which served as an argument 



126 How Protestantism '' Reformed^ 

to Protestant theologians to demonstrate the necessity 
of rendering the dissolution of the conjugal tie easier. 
Bucer in 1531 reproached Catholics with the hardships 
of their law, which refused to the separated husband or 
wife the right of contracting new ties. 

^^ How could God/^ said he, ^'refuse to his believers, 
to the servants of grace, what formerly it was not 
difficult to withhold from the legal slave. Where is the 
clear-sighted, truthful man who does not know that to- 
day the matrimonial tie is generally more relaxed than 
it ever was among the Jews, so that those unions among 
us are rather ties of torture than true marriages. ^^ 

Bucer^s colleague, Sebastian Meier, was very much 
afraid that, instead of the repugnance manifested by the 
Catholics, the Protestants would admit divorce. 

Bacili Monner, a Saxon councillor, in 1561 exhorted 
the magistrates not to proceed in matrimonial afPairs 
with so much levity and want of foresight, remarking 
that it was easy to see the embarrassment and the 
demoralization that were flowing from this arbitrary and 
imprudent way of acting, at a time, too, when men 
were already too much inclined to permit themselves to 
be carried away by their passions. The same author 
adds that never had there been seen so many separated 
wives as in that fast living century, and that youth ran 
the greatest risk of being perverted by those dissolute 
and thoughtless persons, who not only sustained in 
private conversations, but even taught publicly, the 
lawfulness and the necessity of the plurality of wives. 
Who cannot see the result of such doctrines, at a time, 
above all, when the most extreme demoralization reigned 
in a fallen world, struck with insanity. It is this which 
compromises so much the reputation of Protestants in 
the eyes of their adversaries, who contend thp^t the 



How Protestantism '' Reformed !' 127 

Lutheran doctrine serves but to render people more 
dissolute and intractable, and gives occasion for the 
scorn of every civil law and of every duty. ^^ These 
are the great scandals/^ says Monner finally, ^^to be 
deplored by every truly pious person.'^ 



CHAPTER X. 

The Married Minister, 

Contrasted with the Celibate Priest — Christ 
0:n^ly is the Catholic's Spouse — Eisks oe the 
protestai^t clergyman — his follies akd his 
Luxurious Liee in England. 

^"^In the regeneration/^ says Orestes A. Brownson, 
^' what may be called the order of the end, which is 
promised by the Incarnation, and in which creation is 
completed and man finds his supreme good by being 
supernaturally united to the supreme good itself, the 
paternal and filial relations are spiritual, but no less 
real, than in the order of generation commencing with 
Adam. Our spiritual fathers are no less real fathers 
than our fathers after the flesh. Priests are called 
fathers, and really are so, and as fathers of our spiritual 
life they are fathers of a higher order and in a higher 
sense than our natural fathers, as much higher as the 
life of the soul is above the life of the body. 

Like Bigamy. — ^^ Perhaps in this fact is at least one 
of the reasons why the Church insists on the celibacy of 
the clergy and regards with no favor a married clergy, 
even when she allows priests, married before receiving 
Holy Orders, to retain their wives. There would be a 
sort of bigamy in it, for the priest is wedded to the 
Church, his true spouse, and our spiritual mother. 
The new birth is as really a birth as natural birth, and 



The Married Minister. 1 29 

the priest married in the natural order seems to be a 
priest of the order of Adam^ rather than a priest of the 
order of Melchisedech. The spiriritual father owes all 
his love, all his care and tenderness to his spiritual 
children, and ought not to be burdened with children 
after the flesh/^ 

He is a Spiritual Bride.— They who object to the 
celibacy of the clergy may find here an answer to their 
objections. The priest is not really a celibate, he has a 
spiritual bride and spiritual children, which develop all 
the higher and nobler qualities of the husband and father. 
Nor are those virgins who reject marriage after the 
flesh, and take the vow of chastity, less really wives and 
mothers than are wives and mothers in the natural 
order. They are really espoused in the spiritual order, 
and of each of them it may be said, in the language of 
Scripture, '' Thy Maker is thy husband. ^^ 

A:n' Efficie>^t k^^ Powerful Age:n^t. — From the 
earliest times the greatest importance was attached by 
the Church to the priestly office, and an exalted idea 
was entertained of its character. This can be seen from 
the care and 'formality with which the election and 
ordination of the higher orders of the clergy were con- 
ducted, as well as from the practice of celibacy. Celi- 
bacy was always regarded by the Church as the most 
efficient and powerful engine for good, and as confer- 
ring a character the most holy and sublime. ^^ The fun- 
damental idea of the priesthood, ^^ says the Eev. Dr. 
John Alzog, professor of Theology at the University 
of Freiburg, ^''is that of representatives of Christ, the 
second and spiritual Adam, whose work they continue, 
and in whose unmarried state they early recognized the 
prototype and pattern of their own.^^ 

Even the PAaAKS. — As we have pointed out else- 



1 30 The Married Minister, 

where^ even the Pagans could not conceive of a perfect 
priesthood without the accompanying state of virginity. 
The honor and reverence paid to the Vestal virgins and 
sibyls are examples of this universal feeling, and an- 
other^ perhaps still more striking, was the rule pre- 
scribed to the high-priest of the Eleusinian mysteries 
forbidding him to enter into the marriage state after he 
had assumed his office, or, if already married, enjoining 
abstinence from all intercourse with his wife. We have 
seen that the Jewish priests were also forbidden to have 
intercourse while engaged in their ministrations at the 
temple. 

All liq" THREE Eeasoks. — What more need be said 
for the practice of clerical celibacy than is said in the 
following three reasons: — 

1.— It is fitting that he who would worthily celebrate 
the Holy Sacrament of the Mass, an office destined to 
continue till the end of time, should be distinguished 
by eminent purity of body. 

2. — No one, who does not enjoy this freedom, can 
give his life undivided to Christ and his Church, and 
labor with the single purpose of advancing his interests 
and glory, since the married state necessarily implies a 
divided heart and pursuits directed to other ends. 

3. — The married state would limit that absolute in- 
dependence so necessary to the successful ministry of 
the priest* 

Of COURSE, ONLY HuMAK.— ''The priest ought to 
marry, because he is only human,^^ says the Protestant. 
Of course he is only human, but so is the soldier who 
runs away from the field on the morning of battle. The 
cowardly soldier has disgraced his flag, and will be 
punished and at least ignominiously expelled from the 
army, should he escape the death-sentence. 



The Married Minister. 131 

The Catholic priest who should marry would ^^ dis- 
grace his cloth/^ and would be expelled from his order. 
How mau}^ thousands of men and women in the world 
have lived to the mortal end lives of perfect continence? 
They have gone, about their daily avocations, have 
mingled with friends, companions, and associates, and 
yet retained their virginity. Why, then, cannot one 
small class of men, (for the priesthood is only a very 
small fraction of the population) specially devoted to 
the service of God, also live continent lives, live just as 
chastely as those exposed to all the temptations of the 
world? 

A Voluntary Vovt. — Yes, the priest is only 
human, but recollect he has not been forced into holy 
orders. His act of consecrating himself to the service 
of the altar is entirely voluntary. He must serve 
several years of probation, he is daily reminded of the 
great responsibility he is about to undertake, he is 
made to prove himself, and finally he is not ordained 
until he is 25 years of age. Before he arrives at that 
stage the theological student knows whether he is fitted 
for the life before him. 

But so is the Protestant minister " only human. ^^ 
We may say, without any reflection upon the body in 
general, that he is too human for his office. He be- 
lieves in clerical marriage, it is encouraged by his supe- 
riors. While he is a theological student there is no rule 
forbidding his writing to a young lady. And is it not 
very human to prefer the society of the young lady to 
the society of the hard, dry books he must study? He 
must divide his time between the two, and it is '' only 
human ^^ nature, should the studies suffer in that di- 
vided allegiance. 

Still FAiq'CY Free. — Well, he may have safely 



132 The Married Minister, 

tided over his seminary days and have been ordained, 
still ^^ fancy free. '^ He obtains a curacy, and if good 
looking and with good prospects^, becomes a matrimonial 
problem to the ladies of his parish. He is not hedged 
around with that reverence peculiar to the Catholic 
priest, which makes the Catholic man or woman in- 
stinctively feel that the priest is his or her superior, no 
matter how lowly his birth, or how poor his attainments. 
But in the case of the young minister there is always 
the probability of ^"^ match-making^^ going on among 
mothers with marriageable daughters. 

No matter how great the zeal with which the young 
man has entered upon his duties, he will soon see that it is 
impossible for him to realize his religious hopes because 
of the social engagements he is forced to enter into and 
the peculiar light in which he is regarded by the females 
of his parish while he is a bachelor. 

Love comes at Last. — He is only human, and 
love conquers him sooner or later. Even a monarch 
courting a maid is not a very dignified picture. The 
loyer is always the subject of jest: — 

The lover, all as frantic, 

Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt. 

* * * * 

And then the lover. 

Sighing like a furnace, with a woful ballad, 
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. 

^ ^ '!» H» 

Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid, 
Some banished lover or some captive maid. 

The power of love is proverbial. The poets (and they 
know something about that tenderness of the heart 
called love) tell us in smoothest verse that everything 
goes by the board for that passion. Our curate or our 



The Married Minister. l 



OJ 



rector is " only human/'' and he becomes the subject, 
naturally, (mayhap the slave) of woman. 

Alas ! the love of women, it is known 
To be a lovely and a fearful thing. 

^^ Not Wisely, But too Well. '^ — And then, again, 
our young clergyman may love '^ not wisely, but too 
well^'' — for he is '^^only human/^ The object of his 
affection may be frivolous, and some act of thoughtless- 
ness on her part may give rise to gossip which, in the 
case of any other than the fiancee of a minister, would 
pass unheeded. The slightest untoward act may com- 
promise his position and impair his usefulness. More- 
over, the language of love is peculiar. It has not the 
precision and relevancy of words in the ordinary course 
of business, friendship, political or literary affairs. It is 
apt to be exaggerated, and though sound in its premises 
yet false in its conclusions. The cynical observer, who 
occasionally stumbles across a truth, has said that the 
language of love is akin to the utterances of insanity. 
Men and women Avho have probably devoted the whole 
or a large portion of their lives to the study of this 
subject, have authoritatively declared that, under those 
circuMistances, man is not quite responsible for his 
actions. 

Not a SEMi:NrARY Study. — His training in the theo- 
logical seminary has not fitted him for an' event of 
this character. He has not been taught how to conduct 
himself under these peculiar circumstances. There are no 
text books of which he could avail himself, and though 
his professors may have been through a course of love 
and have had a profound knowledge of the subject, yet 
they have not imparted to the student the secrets which 
experience has taught them. It was not in the curri- 



1 34 ^^^ Married Minister. 

culum. Therefore our young clergyman has no rules 
by which he can guide his conduct^ or govern his 
language. Naturally he will speak from the heart, 
and the intellect will have nothing to do with it. 
Imagine this young rector, after pouring into the ear 
of \\\^ fiancee a torrent of platitudes and ^^ soft nothings/^ 
mounting the pulpit and declaiming on the vanities of 
the world, or going (if he can find the time from his 
love making) into the house of one of his parishioners to 
regulate the conduct of the male or female portion of 
the household. Would not the men listen with a 
cvnical smile to his exhortations, and the women with 
significant nudges and glances? 

" The minister's in love"*' is the word that goes the 
round of the parish, and when his '^'^fiock ''meet him, it 
is with a peculiar smile. To be sure, there is no law, 
civil or ecclesiastical, forbidding his falling in love. So 
far, he is free to follow the inclinations of mind and 
heart. But who cannot see that the force of his minis- 
trations is much weakened. 

After the '^'Hokeymook.'' — But when he has safely 
tided over the season of courtship and is at last landed 
on the shores of matrimony he is compelled to devote a 
large portion of his time to the study of the character, 
and perhaps the needs, of his wife. If he has money 
enough he is bound to follow the fashion of the honey- 
moon and exile himself from his pastoral work for a 
month at least. When he has returned and his wife 
proves that she is all she should be, well and good ; but 
if she should fall short of the standard, what then? 
Marriage, it is said, is a lottery. He may have drawn a 
blank. The woman he has chosen may have been 
totally unfitted, by nature and education, for the position 
of a minister's wife. Xn any other sphere her character- 



The Married Min istei\ 1 3 5 

istics night pass without comment^ or be such as to 
adorn the ball-room^ the drawing room^ or the dinner 
table. But as the Pastor^s wife^ she may be unsympa- 
thetic^ a gossip;, inclined to frivolity, and thoughtless 
in making acquaintances. Would not her husband^s 
parishioners say, in answer to his exhortations and 
animadversions, ^^ Brother, first take the beam out of 
thine own eye?^^ He might continue to preserve the 
respect of his people, but their reverence he would 
never have. If the minister of religion cannot inspire 
reverence his usefulness is nil. 

Children akd Poverty. — Then children come, and 
by and by the house is filled with them. It means 
increased expense without increase of income. What 
would support two in ease and comfort would be sadly 
deficient for four, or six, or eight. The children have 
to be clothed, and fed, and educated, and '^ genteel pov- 
erty ^^ is the pastor^s unhappy lot. Perhaps he may 
resort to the pen to eke out a living, and then what 
becomes of the precious souls entrusted to his charge? 
Still further is lessened the time he can devote to their 
^^ spiritual needs.^^ Practically, they are sheep without 
a shepherd. There is another consideration. Some one 
of his children, for want of suflScient watchfulness on 
the father^s part, may finally go astray. How great is 
the discredit thrown on the ministry, for the world will 
always hold the parent responsible for the wrongdoing 
of the child. And the same world will joke about it, 
and will insolently and brutally say: ^^They are all 
alike — these parsons and parson^s sons are no better 
than other people.'' The good man will suffer far 
more keenly than if he were a layman; but so, too, and 
in another sense, will the people he had pledged himself 
to guide, to comfort, and console. Ah! in how much 



136 The Married Minister. 

greater need does he himself stand of comfort and of 
consolation. If the spirit be weak, if the soul be too 
easily clouded by misfortune, the man who had started 
out in the heyday of youth, full of bright hopes, and 
with a determination to do good to his fellow-men, may 
fall back mentally and spiritually exhausted, and' suf- 
fer those nearest and dearest to him to follow in the foot- 
steps of that one black sheep. 

The Ministeii's So:n"— a Tragedy. — This is no 
fancy picture. Tlie original, the reality, has often been 
seen in the civil and criminal courts of every Protestant 
country. The impartial newspaper contains the records. 
The writer, only a few years ago, in this city of New 
York, looked upon the bloody corpses of a pair whose 
lives were sinful, and whose death was one of the most 
tragic occurrences the city had ever known. An old 
clergyman, Avho had spent many years of usefulness in a 
Connecticut parish, had procured for one of his sons a 
clerkship in a well-known firm in New York. The 
young man fell beneath the spell of a woman who had 
once been a famous beauty in the South. They went 
and lived together as man and wife for" a time. One 
morning they were both found dead in their lodgings. 
The young man had shot her, putting a bullet through 
her head, and then one through his own. 

A Life full of Crime. — The investigation which 
the press made revealed a romantic story full of crime. 
The woman was twice the young man^s age. She was 
living a double life. Not many blocks away lived her 
children by a former marriage, all grown up and all 
thoroughly respectable. Many a year ago her wayward- 
ness had brought ruin to her husband — a man of talent 
and position in the South. She left him, and murder 
and other crimes marked her subsequent career, till at 



The Married Minister. 137 

last retribution overtook her in a terrible shape. For 
clays and days the papers were full of stories of her sin- 
ful life. 

And that aged clergyman — after viewing the remains 
of his son^ a murderer and suicide — returned to his 
country parish^ broken down in spirit and body, and 
what little energy he had left was utilized in the care 
of the wife and mother prostrated by the recollection of 
her son^s terrible end. 

Satire aistd Kidicule Kill. — Other cases might 
be cited where the sins of the children have fallen 
heavily upon the father, and where his usefulness as a 
minister has in consequence been utterly destroyed. 
The evil is not confined to the parish alone — the daily 
press spreads it broadcast. The newspaper is quicker 
to pounce upon a bad scandal than a good sermon. 
There is nothing so fatal to any institution as satire 
and ridicule. These clerical scandals the press invari- 
ably treats satirically. It should not be so, for sin is 
always sad. 

For Example. — Out of innumerable instances of the 
way in which the daily journal treats these unfortunate 
affairs we will select one. It was published in a leading- 
New York newspaper on February Gth, 1888. The 
story helps to point the moral that, if clerical celibacy 
prevailed in that minister's Church, the scandal never 
would have arisen. The report is as follows: — 

•^TURNED FROM HOME IN A STORM. 

'' HOW A DOMINIE PUNISHED A YOUNG WOMAN 
WHO WAS NAUGHTY. 

'' Dominie Bruen, pastor of the fashionable First 
Presbyterian Church, of Belvidere, N". J., is undoubtedly 
a pious man — stern, rigid, and orthodox, with a holy 



138 The Married Minister, 

horror of sin and naughtiness. But just now he is 
having a bit of a tussle with his conscience, because he 
did not allow mercy to season justice, and a young- 
woman is in consequence reaping a very heavy punish- 
ment for her peccadilloes. 

^^The Eev. Dr. Bruen married a wife three weeks 
ago, and fitted up a very fine home in the select part of 
the town. Then he secured a companion for his bride; 
she was a pretty, well educated, and refined young 
woman, and the dominie^s ideal of a model companion. 
As a matter of course, the young bloods of the town 
recognized her charms and worshipped them. The 
swellest of the dudes became deeply enamored, paid her 
every attention, and the war horses among the gossips of 
the village scented an engagement. 

'' Everything went like a pastoral; the household of 
the dominie was serene and blissful, and his bride was 
fond of her companion. 

NOT SUCH A JEWEL. 

'^ But when the Rev. Dr. Bruen and his wi:^^ returned 
home from prayer meeting a week ago Saturday night 
and found the house in great disorder, as though a high 
old time had made merry in their absence, they mar- 
velled greatly and grew suspicious. The dominie said 
nothing but kept his eye skinned. 

'^Then on Tuesday night the dominie woke with a 
start and trembled. He heard heavy footfalls in the 
hallways. M^urglars,' he said, and he pulled on his 
trousers and with a grim smile took down his shotgun, 
lit a lantern, and went out into the storm to hunt them. 
He hunted over the ground as far as the depot, but 
didn^t get a shot at his game. 

'^ The next night he put up a job on the girl, for he 



The Married Minister. 139 

had begun to suspect her of being naughty. The dom- 
inie borrowed guile of the devil and started out with his 
wife, ostensibly to go to church. They walked about 
the town for awhile and came back. A bright light was 
burning on the top floor of the house. The dominie 
sent his wife up the back stairs, and he himself went up 
the front stairs and rapped on the door of the girl's room. 
There was a skurrying, but no response. He rapped 
again, and in a plaintive voice the young woman said 
that she was getting ready to go to bed and he couldn't 
come in. But the good dominie insisted and the door 
was opened. 

^^ The fair maiden had told the truth and was in tears 
over the intrusion. The dominie asked her what mis- 
chief she was up to. Opening a wardrobe door he found 
his answer. He shut the door and told his wife, who 
had just come up stairs, to go down. 

'' Then he opened the door again and brought out by 
the ear a young man. It w^as the swellest of dudes. 

^^ ^John,' said the dominie, ^I never suspected you of 
anything like this.' And when John had owned up he 
added, ' If you will marry her I will perform the cere- 
mony and nobody will know anything about it. 

^^ ^ All right,' said John, meekly, and he went home, 
and has stayed there ever since. 

OUT INTO THE STORM. 

^^ The dominie told his wife that the young woman 
had been naughty, and then ,sat in his study and 
thought it all over. He was filled with a righteous 
wrath that such ^goings on,' had happened in his house. 

^* He finally ordered the girl out of his house, despite 
the protest of his wife. The girl dressed herself lightly 
and went out. It was snowinsr heavilv. and she was 



/ 



1 40 The Married Minister. 

fairly lost to know what to do. Finally she hired a 
team to take her to her married sister at Belvidere 
Corners^ a few miles away. The drifts were so deep two 
miles from the town that the driver could go no further. 
But the girl would not go back, and she started to walk 
on in the midnight storm. 

^' She was found unconscious in the snow by Farmer 
John Landermann, as he was driving to town in the 
morning, and taken to his home. He and his wife, 
after two hours^ labor, resuscitated her. Her feet were 
frostbitten and she was in a deplorable condition. She 
told her story and Avas nursed till Friday, when she was 
able to go to her sister^s, where she now is in seclusion. 

^^ The Eev. Dr. Bruen refuses to discuss the matter, 
but ' John ^ says he is willing to marry the girl and 
that he had asked her to be his wife, but that she had 
declined."' 

A Peculiak Protestant Argument. — When the 
cholera raged fifty or sixty years ago in England and 
Ireland, a comparison was drawn between the zeal of the 
Catholic priest and the negligence of the Protestant 
minister. The minister fled from the sick, the priest 
succored them. The Protestant Archbishop of Dublin 
undertook to justify the conduct of his clergy, and set 
himself to prove the futility of religious succor to the 
dying. He stated that the ministers who did not go to 
the bedside of the sick did not fail in their duty, and that 
the sick who should send for the clergyman did fail in 
duty. He argued that the sick were bound in con- 
science not to expose the minister to the danger of 
contagion. He told his clergy to inculcate upon their 
people ^^this essential principle of the Protestant relig- 
ion '^ — that whatever '^ a Christian minister '" might do 
for those '' who are approaching their end,"' was ineflBca- 



The Married Minister. 141 

cious^ for the sick man was " no longer capable of 
serving and pleasing God.'^ This very curious document 
of the Protestant Archbishop may be seen in " The 
Annals of Christian Philosophy/^ August^ 1832/ vol. 
V.^ page 156. 

Degkaded the Peiestly Dignity. — " Protestant- 
ism," said Professor Markheimer, of Heidelberg, " has 
no less degraded the priestly dignity. To be as little 
like the Catholic hierarchy as possible Protestant 
ministers have divested themselves of all religious ap- 
pearance, and they have very humbly placed themselves 
at the feet of the temporal power. What the state used 
to give to ecclesiastics is now given to the laity. With 
their priestly vestments the ministers have put off their 
sacred character. The state has made it a business, and 
all the evil ought to be put at the door of the Protestant 
clergy. Soon priests will be no more than ordinary 
citizens/^ 



CHAPTER XL 
Family, Property, and Simony. 

A Great Moral Question as it Appears ik 
EisTGLAii^D — Married Ministers Fly from the 
Sick — Providing for one's Eelatives — Sack- 
ing THE Monasteries — The Malthusian 
Theory — The Protestant Church Hated by 
the Masses. 

As a proper sequel to the preceding chapter^ let us 
consider still further the effects of a married clergy^ as 
we see them in a great Protestant country like England. 
Our authority shall be a member of the ' "^ Anglican 
Church/' — Mr. William Cobbett^ British member of 
Parliament, who was borfi and bred a Protestant. 
From his '^'^ History of the Protestant Eeformation/^ 
written years ago, we take the extracts following. 

But first we call attention to the fact that every 
Church has some kind of property belonging to it. 
This property, real or personal, is given in trust to the 
clergy. Now, it is a risky thing for the married clergy 
to undertake to manage this property. There is the 
danger that they or their offspring may misappropriate 
it. It was well recognized in the days of Gerson that 
the temporalities of the Church could only be entrusted 
to men cut off from family ties. 

'^ You have, without doubt, ^^ says Mr. Cobbett, at 
pages 55 and. 56, ^^ fresh in your recollection all the 



Family^ Property^ and Simony, 143 

censures, sarcasms, and ridicule, which we have, from 
our very infancy, heard against the monastic life; what 
drones the monks, and friars, and nuns were; how use- 
lessly they lived; how much they consumed to no good 
purpose whatever; and particularly^ how ridiculous and 
even how wicked it was to compel men and women to 
live unmarried, to lead a life of celibacy, and thus 
either to deprive them of a great natural pleasure, or to 
expose them to the double sin of breach of chastity 
and breach of oath. 

Abolishing the Mo:n'ASTeries. — '' Now this is a very 
important matter. It is a great moral question ; and 
therefore we ought to endeavor to settle this question^ 
to make up our minds completely upon it, before we 
proceed any further. The monastic state necessarily 
was accompanied with vows of celibacy ; and therefore 
it is, before we give an account of the putting down of 
these institutions in England, necessary to speak of the 
tendency and, indeed, of the natural and inevitable 
consequences of those vows. 

^^It has been represented as unnatural to compel men 
and women to live in the unmarried state, and as tend- 
ing to produce propensities to which it is hardly proper 
even to allude. Now, in the first place, have we heard 
of late days of any propensities of this sort? And, if 
we have, have those clergymen and bishops been Cath- 
olics, or have they been Protestants? The answer 
which every one now living in England and Ireland can 
instantly give to these questions disposes of this objec- 
tion to vows of celibacy. In the next place, the 
Catholic Church compels nobody to make such vow. 
It only says that it will admit no one to be a priest, 
monk, friar, or nun, who rejects such vow. Saint Paul 
strongly recommends to all Christian teachers an 



144 Family^ Property^ and Simony, 

unmarried life. The Church has founded a rule on this 
recommendation, and that, too, for the same reason 
that the recommendation was given ; namely, that 
those who have flocks to watch over, or, in the language 
of our own Protestant Church, who have the care of 
souls, should have as few other cares as possible, and 
should by all means be free from those incessant and 
sometimes racking cares which are inseparable from 
a wife and family. 

His Flock Ignored. — " What priest, who has a wife 
and family, will not think more about them than about 
his flock? Will he, when any part of that family is in 
distress, from illness or other causes, be wholly devoted, 
body and mind, to his flock? Will he be as ready to 
give alms, or aid of any sort to the poor, as he would be, 
if he had no family to provide for? Will he never be 
tempted to sw^erve from his duty, in order to provide 
patronage for sons, and for the husbands of daughters? 
Will he always as boldly stand up and reprove the Law 
and the Squire for his oppressions and vices, as he 
would do if he had no son for whom to get a benefice, a 
commission, or a sinecure? Will his wife never have 
her partialities, her tattlings, her bickerings, amongst 
his flock, and never on any account induce him to act 
towards any part of that flock, contrary to the strict 
dictates of his sacred duty? 

" And to omit hundreds, yes hundreds of reasons that 
might, in addition, be suggested, will the married priest 
be as ready as the unmarried one to appear at the bed- 
side of sickness and contagion? Here it is, that the 
calls on him are most imperative, and here it is that the 
married priest will, and with nature on his side, be deaf 
to those calls. 

They Died as Catholics. — '' From amongst many 



Family^ Property, and Simony, 145 

incidents that I could cite^ let me take one. During the 
war of 1776 the king^s house at Winchester was used as 
a prison for French prisoners of war. A dreadfully con- 
tagious fever broke out amongst them. Many of them 
died. They were chiefly Catholics^ and were attended 
in their last moments by tw*o or three Catholic priests 
residing in that city. But amongst the sick prisoners 
there were many Protestants ; and these requested the 
attendance of Protestant j)arsons. There were the 
parsons of all the parishes at Winchester. There were 
the deans and all the prebendaries. But not a man of 
them went to console the dying Protestants^ in conse- 
quence of which several of them desired the assistance 
of the priests and^ of course, died Catholics. Dr. 
Milner, in his letter to Dr. Sturges (page 56), mentions 
this matter, and he says : ' The answer (of the Protest- 
ant parsons) I understand to have been this : "^^ We are 
not more afraid, as individuals, to face death than the 
priests are : but we must not carry poisonous contagion 
into the bosoms of our families.'^ ' ISTo, to be sure ! But 
then, not to call this the cassock^s taking shelter behind 
the petticoat, in what a dilemma does this place the 
Dean and Chapter I Either they neglected their most 
sacred duty, and left Protestants to flee, in their last 
moments, into the arms of ' Popery ^ ; or, that clerical 
celibacy, against which they have declaimed all their 
lives, and still declaim, and still hold up to us, their 
flocks, as something both contemptible and wicked, is, 
after all, necessary to that ' care of souls, ^ to which 
they profess themselves to have been called, and for 
which they receive such munificent reward. 

Little or Nothixg for the Poor. — ''But conclu- 
sive, perfectly satisfactory, as these reasons are, we should 
not, if we were to stop here, do anything like justice to 



146 Family y Property ^ and Simony, 

our subject; foi% as to the parochial clergy^ do we not 
see, aye, and feel too, that they, if with families, or 
intending to have families, find little to spare to the 
poor of their flocks ? In short, do we not know that a 
married priesthood and pauperism and poor rates, all 
came upon this country at K)ne and the same moment? 
And what was the effect of clerical celibacy with regard 
to the higher orders of the clergy? A bishop, for 
instance, having neither wife nor child, naturally ex- 
pended his resources amongst the people in his diocese. 
He spent a part of them on his Cathedral church, or 
in some other way sent his revenues back to the 
people. If William of Wyckham had been a married 
man, if the bishops in those days had been married men, 
the parsons would not now have had a college either 
at Eton, Westminster, Oxford, or Cambridge. 

The Peotestant Bishop. — ''Besides, who is to ex- 
pect of human nature that a bishop with a wife and 
family will, in his distribution of Church preferment, con- 
sider nothing but the interest of religion? We are not to 
expect of man more than that of which we from experi- 
ence know that man is capable. It is for the lawgiver 
to interpose, and to take care that the community suffer 
not from the frailty of the nature of individuals, whose 
private virtues even may, in some cases, and those not 
a few, not have a tendency to produce public good. I 
do not say that married bishops ever do wrong, because 
I am not acquainted with them well enough to ascertain 
the fact ; but, in speaking of the diocese in which I 
was born, and in which I am best acquainted, I may 
say that it is certain that, if the late Bishop of 
Winchester had lived in Catholic times, he could not 
have had a wife, and that he could not have had a 
wife's sister, to marry Mr. Edmund Poulter, in which 



Family y Property, and Simony, 147 

case I may be allowed to think it possible that Mr. 
Poulter would not have quitted the bar for the pulpit, 
and that he would not have had the two livings of 
Moon-Stoke and Soberton and a Prebend besides; that 
his son Brownlow Poulter would not have had the two 
livings of Buriton and Petersfield; that his son Charles 
Poulter would not have had the three livings of Alton, 
Binstead, and Kingsley; that his son-in-law^ Ogle would 
not have had the living of Bishop^s Waltham! and that 
his son-in-law Haygarth would not have had the two 
livings of Upham and Durley. 

Benefices kept in the Family. — ''That if the 
bishop had lived in Catholic times, he could not have had 
a son, Charles Augustus ]N"orth, to have the tw^o livings 
of Alverstoke and Havard^ and to be a 'Prebend; that 
he could not have had another son^ Francis K'orth, to 
have the four livings of Old Alresford^ Medstead, N'ew 
Alresford, and St. Mary^s, Southampton, and to be, 
moreover, a Prebend and Master of Saint Cross; that 
he could not have had a daughter to marry Mr. Wm. 
Garnier, to have the two livings of Droxf ord and Bright- 
well Baldwin, and to be a Prebend and a Chancellor 
besides ; that he could not have had Mr. William 
Garnier's brother, Thomas Garnier, for a relation, and 
this latter might not then have had the two livings of 
Aldingbown and Bishop^s Stoke; that he could not have 
another daughter to marry Mr. Thomas De Grey, to 
have the four livings of Calbourne, Fawley, Merton, 
and Rounton, and to be a Prebend and also an Arch- 
deacon besides. 

^' In short, if the late Bishop had lived in Catholic 
times, it is a little too much to believe that these 
twenty-four livings, five Prebends, one Chancellorship, 
one Archdeaconship, and one Mastership, worth, 



1 48 Family, Property, and Simony. 

perhaps, altogether, more than twenty thousand pounds 
a year, would have fallen to the ten persons above 
named. And may we not reasonably suppose that the 
bishop, instead of having behind him (as the newspapers 
told us he did) savings to nearly the amount of three 
hundred thousand pounds in money, would, if he had 
had no children nor grandchildren, have expended a 
part of this money on that ancient and magnificent 
Cathedral, the roof of which has recently been in 
danger of falling in, or would have been the founder of 
something for the public good and national honor, or 
would have been a most munificent friend and protector 
of the poor, and would never, at any rate, have suffered 
small beer to be sold out of his episcopal palace at 
FarnhamI With an excise license, mind you!^^ 

Plundekijs^g the Monasteries. — Mr. Cobbett shows 
how the ^^^Eeformation^' in England had suppressed the 
monastic institutions and robbed the poor of the sus- 
tenance they drew from the monasteries. He shows, 
too, how far removed from saints w^ere the Protestant 
soldiers who carried out the desecration. 

" Never, in all probability,^^ he continues at page 85, 
^^ since the world began, was there so rich a harvest of 
plunder. The ruffians of Cromwell entered the convent, 
they tore down the altars to get away the gold and silver; 
ransacked the chests and drawers of the monks and 
nuns; tore off the covers of books that were ornamented 
with precious metals. . . The ready money, in the 
convents, down to the last shilling, was seized. In 
short, the most rapacious and unfeeling soldiery never, 
in towns delivered up to be sacked, proceeded with 
greediness, shamelessness, and brutality to be at all 
compared with those of these heroes of the Protestant 
Reformation ; and this, observe, towards persons, womea 



Family, Prope^Hy, and Simony, 149 

as well as men^ who had committed no crime known to 
the laws, who had no crime regularly laid to their 
charge, who had had no hearing in their defence, a 
large part of whom had, within a year, been declared, by 
this same parliament, to lead most godly and useful 
lives, the whole of whose possessions were guaranteed to 
them by the Grefat Charter, as much as the King^s crown 
was to him, and whose estates were enjoyed for the 
benefit of the poor, as well as for that of these plundered 
possessors themselves. 

'^ of all the scourges that ever 

afflicted this country, [England] none is to be put in 
comparison with the Protestant ^ Eeformation/ 

' '^ . . . the thing impudently called the '^ Refor- 
mation/ ^^ 

The Hokrible Doctri:n'e of Malthus.- -After this 
Mr. Oobbett alludes to the doctrine of Malthus for the 
suppression of children, which numbers of English 
Protestants approved of. He says at page 61: — 

^^ Enough now, about the celibacy of the clergy, but 
it is impossible to quit the subject without one word to 
Parson Malthus. . . JSTow, he wants to compel the 
laboring classes to refrain to a great extent from mar- 
riage; and Mr. Scarlett actually brought a Bill into 
parliament, having, in one part of it, this avowed object 
in view; the great end, proposed by both, being to cause 
a diminution of the poor rates. Parson Malthus does 
not call this recommending celibacy; but ""moral res- 
traint.' And, what is celibacy but moral restraint! So 
that here are these people reviling the Catholic Church 
far insisting on vows of celibacy on the part of those 
who choose to be priests, or nuns; and, at the same 
time, proposing to compel the laboring classes to live in 
a state of celibacy, or to run the manifest risk of 



1 50 Family, Property, and Simony. 

perishing, they and their children, from starvation! 

" Is all this sheer impudence, or is it sheer folly? 
One or the other; it is greater than ever was before heard 
from the lips of mortal man. They affect to believe 
that the clerical vow of celibacy must be nugatory, 
because nature is constantly at work to overcome it. 
This is what Dr. Sturges asserts. Now, if this be the 
case with men of education, men on whom their religion 
imposes abstinence, fasting, almost constant prayer, and 
an exceeding number of austerities; if this be the case 
Avith regard to such men, and if it be, therefore, con- 
temptible and wicked, not to compel them, mind, to 
make such vows, but to permit them voluntarily to do 
it, what must it be to compel young men and women 
laborers to live in a state of celibacy, or be exposed to 
absolute starvation? Why, the answer is, that it is 
the grossest inconsistency, or premeditated wickedness; 
but that, like all the other Avild schemes and crude 
projects relative to the poor, we trace it at once back to 
the ^ Reformation,^ that great source of the poverty, and 
misery, and degradation of the main body of the people 
of this kingdom 

Prolific ix Misfortuxe. — " But of all its conse- 
quences that of introducing a married clergy has, 
perhaps, been the most prolific of mischief. This has 
absolutely erected an order for the procreation of de- 
pendents on the state; for the procreation of thousands 
of persons annually, who have no fortunes of their own, 
and who must be, somehow or other, maintained by 
burdens imposed upon the people 

^^ . . . and, after all that we have, during our 
whole lives, heard against that rule (celibacy) of the 
Catholic Church, which imposed a vow of celibacy on 
those who choose the clerical or the monastic life, we 



Family, Property, a7zd Simony. 1 5 1 

find, whether we look at this rule in a religions, in a 
moral, in a civil, or in a political point of view, that it 
was founded in wisdom, that it was a great blessing to 
the people at large, and that its abolition is a thing to be 
deeply deplored/^ 

No INFLUENCE VTiTH THE MASSES.— And now let 
us put this question:— Has the Protestant Church, the 
majority of whose members are so bitter against the 
confessional, and who so strongly condemn clerical 
celibacy, become popular with the masses, and is it 
strong in beneficent influences ? Let a Protestant 
answer the query. 

The Eev. Dr. John H. Oerter has recently written a 
book on '' The Social Question in the Light of History 
and the Word of Truth.'' He says of his Church :— 

" That under the present emergency a solemn obliga- 
tion rests with the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
only ignorance and selfishness can deny. But in speak- 
ing of the Church we refer principally to the Evangelical 
portion thereof. For it is a well-known fact that the 
Catholic Church long ago has initiated measures to 
counteract the subversive influences of the present 
social commotions, and, if possible, to turn them to her 
own advantage. And what is still more important, we 
have to face the humiliating truth that the ranks of 
socialism and anarchism are mostly swelled by former 
members of the Protestant persuasion. This sad fact 
ought to induce the Evangelical Church above all 
others to awaken to a sense of her duty and to strain 
every nerve to counter-influence the growing evil. But 
in order to be fitted for such an important work it is 
absolutely necessary that the evil should be discerned 
and traced to its proper source/' 
The Power of Example. —We have shown in these 



152 Faintly y Property, and Simony. 

pages the power of example^ the great good that a de- 
voted clergy^ continent and self-sacrificing, can achieve 
to make men and women better, to induce them to 
resist the ordinary temptations of the flesh as well as the 
extraordinary and peculiar temptations to follow the false 
philosophy of modern times. Dr. Oerter goes on : — 

^^The sad position of the laborer in the present 
commotion, especially the fact that the great mass of 
the poor ivorMng class have become estranged from the 
[Protestant] Church, ought to cause her to seriously 
reflect whether she has always made that dependent 
class of society the special object of tender care and 
watchfulness, which, according to the illustrious example 
of the great Head of the Church and the explicit 
command of the word of life, it is entitled to/^ 

Dr. Oerter struggles hard to combat a popular theory, 
as may be seen from the following passage : — 

^'^ The laboring class must be convinced that it is an 
utterly unfounded and malicious charge on the part of 
some demagogic leaders that Christianity was exclu- 
sively a religion for the rich, and that the clergy and 
the Church — the Church of the lowly and hardworking 
Jesus of JSTazareth — stood with their sympathies on the 
side of cold-hearted capitalism. 

"^^ The glaring inconsistency of many a so-called 
Church member has increased the bitterness of the 
masses against the Word of Life and robbed them of 
the last remnant of confidence in the [Protestant] 
Church and her saving work.^"* 

Dr. Oerter says that deeds and not words are necessary 
to bring back the strayed sheep. Well, the Catholic 
Church is doing her share, and the celibacy of her 
clergy is one of the greatest instruments she possesses 
for preaching virtue by example. 



CHAPTER XII. 
Marriage and Divorce. 

Laws of the Church and State — Marriage Hon- 
ored AND Revered by Catholics, lightly 
Regarded by Others — Christ forbids Divorce 
— Advice of the Church to those about --tq 
Marry. 

Origen regarded celibacy as rather springing from a 
desire to serve God without the interruptions arising 
from the cares of marriage than from asceticism, and 
promptly condemned those who abandoned their wives, 
even from the highest motives. The Church has 
always encouraged marriage among the laity, and her 
wisest teachers have ever reproved those who, through 
mistaken zeal, have enjoined the opposite or extreme 
asceticism. For instance, Dionysius of Corinth was 
obliged to reprove Pinytus, Bishop of Gnosus, for 
endeavoring to render celibacy obligatory upon his 
people, to the manifest danger of those whose virtue was 
less austere. 

Marriage a Sacrament.— It does not follow, as 
many thoughtless opponents would have it follow, that, 
because the Catholic Church imposes celibacy on her 
priests, therefore she is careless about or indifferent to 
marriage as regards others. On the contrary, obeying 
the law of her Divine Founder, she has made marriage 
a sacrament, whereas, in other Churches, it is looked 



r 54 Marriage and Divorce, 

upon as little better than a civil contract. St. Paul 
said : '' This is a great sacrament/^ — Ephes. v. 

Again she is the only church which does not recognize 
divorce. She has taken literally the words of our 
Lord: — ^^ Whom God has joined together let no man 
put asunder. ^^ She holds that death alone can put an 
end to marriage. One of the most distinguished orna- 
ments the French pulpit has had was Pere Bourdaloue, 
of the Society of Jesus. In discussing the sacrament of 
matrimony he used to beg his hearers to consider serious- 
ly what such an engagement was, what such a servitude 
was for all one^s life, without redress. 

^' There is no vow/^ he said, ^''how solemn soever, 
with which the Church may not dispense ; but as to 
marriage, her hands are, as I may say, tied, her power 
not extending so far. It was an engagement which 
appeared to the Apostles of such consequence that they 
judged the state of celibacy preferable to it. ^If the 
case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to 
marry.' — ^^Matt. xix. And what reply did our Saviour 
make? Did he blame this sentiment, so unfavorable to 
matrimony? He approved of it; he confirmed it; he 
congratulated them upon their having comprehended 
what others were unable to comprehend: — '^All men 
cannot take this saying.'' — Matt. xix. The reason of 
it is, that they plainly saw how heavy a burden it would 
prove for the greater part of those who should receive 
this sacrament. ^^ 

Its tremendous Eespoksibiltties.— But for those 
who are able to enter into matrimony, for those who are 
entitled to do so, the Church has sanctified that state. 
Her priests, her bishops, and her Popes have explained 
its tremendous responsibilities, and have laid down the 
rules by which they may be successfully borne. St. 



Marriage and Divorce, 1 5 5 

Aiignstiiie wrote a tract on the nuptial state. ^^ A three- 
fold good/^ he said, ^^ accrues from matrimony — poster- 
ity, fidelity, a sacrament. And, indeed, it is a great 
happiness for mankind that Almighty God, by the in- 
stitution of a sacrament, has established connections and 
alliances among them ; and that he has raised these con- 
nections and alliances to a supernatural order, by a 
grace which enables them to obtain these blessings. 
Besides which it is an advantage greatly deserving of 
esteem for persons engaged in the matrimonial state to 
think that another person upon earth has plighted them 
their troth, and, though nothing to them in the order 
of nature or by proximity of blood, yet owes them 
everything, love, respect, mutual assistance, fidelity. 
Finally, I hold that God does honor to fathers and 
mothers by choosing them to bring up in the marriage 
state a lawful progeny, that is, servants by whom he is 
glorified and His Church augmented. •"' 

A SPECIAL Geace Sakctifies it. — Eev. Dr. Alzog, 
whom we have quoted elsewhere, says in his '^ Universal 
Church History '^ (Vol. 1. p. 450):— ^^ The Catholic 
Church, instinctively faithful to the doctrine of Christ 
and the teaching of His Apostles, has indeed always re- 
garded virginity as a supernatural gift and prerogative, 
and in pagan times appealed to its practice in evidence 
of the divine and subduing influence of the Gospel; but 
in all this it has never been her purpose to detract from 
the dignity and sanctity of matrimony. Quite the con- 
trary, for she teaches that a special grace of the Holy 
Ghost sanctifies the union of man and wife. * * * St. 
Ignatius taught that it should be contracted in presence 
of a bishop, and Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria 
speak distinctly and particularly of the bishop^s blessing 
it. Marriage, contracted with these precautions and 



1 56 Marriage and Divorce - 

observances^ was regarded as valid, pleasing in the sight 
of Heaven, and indissoluble even after conjugal fidelity 
had been outraged. It is plainly affirmed in the Pastor 
of Hernias, and by Clement of Alexandria, that if, after 
a divorce, any of the parties should contract a new mar- 
riage during the lifetime of the other, such marriage is, 
according to the passage in Matt. v. 32, an adultery. ^^ 

The doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage was 
the abiding belief and sentiment of the early Christians. 
As time went on, some Churches began to entertain a 
doubt on this point. The Eastern Church put an inter- 
pretation upon the passages in Matt. v. 32, — *^ But I 
say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, 
saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to com- 
mit adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is 
divorced, committeth adultery, ^^ and Matt. xix. 7, — 
" They say unto him, why did Moses then command 
to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away,^^ 
favorable to divorce, which was sanctioned by imperial 
law. But the Western Church of Rome and Africa 
clung to the Apostolic and Evangelic tradition, insisting 
upon the absolute and unconditional indissolubility of 
marriage, and j)unished with excommunication those 
who attempted any violation of this fundamental law. 
Dr. Alzog says this is clear from the declarations of the 
Popes Innocent and Leo, and from the canon of the 
Synod of Mileve (A. D. 416). 

Prohibited Marriages.— Although the early Fath- 
ers of the Church prohibited marriages between Chris- 
tians and either pagans or Jews, and also heretics, yet 
the prohibition was only disciplinary and did not inval- 
idate the marriage contract. In Gaul and Spain, during 
the sixth and seventh oenturies, marriages between 
Catholics and either pagans or Jews were forbidden 



Marriage and Divorce. 1 5 7 

under penalty of excommunication^ and the penalty 
was not removed until a separation had taken place. 
The Synods of Elvira^ Chalcedon^ and Agde also pro- 
hibited marriages between Catholics and heretics, but 
these were never regarded as invalid. 

Validity a:n'd Contract. — The conditions of the 
validity of marriage are mostly identical with the con- 
ditions which determine the validity of contracts in 
general. The consent to the union must be mutual, 
voluntary, deliberate, and manifested by external signs. 
The signs of consent need not be verbal in order to 
make the marriage valid, though the rubric of the 
Ritual requires the consent^ to be expressed in that man- 
ner. The consent must be to actual marriage then and 
there, not at some future time; for in the latter case we 
should have engagement to marry, or betrothal, not 
marriage itself. Consent to marry, if a certain condition 
in the past or present be realized, (e, g.^ ''\ takers', 
for my wife, if you are the daughter of M. and IST.^^) 
suffices, supposing that the condition be fulfilled. Xay, 
it is generally held that, if a condition be added depen- 
dent on future contingencies, (e. ^., ^^ I take you N. for 
my wife, if your father will give you such and such a 
dowry,") the marriage becomes a reality. The condi- 
tion appended, however, must not be contrary to the 
essence of marriage, 6. ^., a man cannot take a woman 
for his wife, to have and hold just as long as he pleases. 
(SeeGury, ''Theol. Moral.'', De Matrimon., cap. iii.). 

When Our Lord condemns the Pharisaic immorality, 
annuls the Mosaic dispensation, and declares, ^"^ Whoso- 
ever shall put away his wife, except for fornication, and 
shall marry another, committeth adultery, and he who 
marrieth her when she is put away committeth adultery,'^ 
the Catholic understands him to mean that the bond 



1 58 Marriage and Divorce, 

of marriage is always^ even when one of the wedded par- 
ties has proved unfaithful, indissoluble. From the first, 
Christ^s declaration made the practice of Christians with 
regard to divorce essentially and conspicuously di£Eerent 
from those of their heathen and Jewish neighbors. 
Still it was only by degrees that the strict practices or 
even the strict theory just stated were accepted in the 
Church. And before we enter on the interpretation of 
Christ's words, we will give a sketch of the history of 
practice and opinion on the matter. 

Eegulati:n'G Divorce. — Christian princes had, of 
course, to deal with the subject of divorce, but they did 
not at once recast the old laws on Christian principles. 
Constantine, Theodosius the Younger, and Valentin- 
ian III. forbade divorce except on certain specified 
grounds; other emperors, like Anastasius (in 497) and 
Justin (whose law was in force till 900) permitted 
divorce by mutual consent, but no one emperor limited 
divorce to the single case of adultery. Chardon says 
that divorce (of course a vinculo) was allowed among 
the Ostrogoths in Spain till the thirteenth century, in 
France under the first and second dynasties, in Germany 
till the seventh century, in Britain till the tenth. 
(Chardon, ''''Hist, des Sacraments,^'' tom. v., Marriage, 
ch. 5.) It would be a waste of labor to accumulate 
quotations from the Fathers in proof of their belief that 
divorce was unlawful except in the case of adultery. 
But it is very important to notice that the oldest tradi- 
tions, both of the Greek and Latin Churches, regarded 
marriage as absolutely indissoluble. Thus the '' Pastor 
Hermae '^ (lib. ii., Mand. iv., c. 1,) Athanagoras, 
^^Legat.^^ 33, (whose testimony, however, does not 
count for much, since he objected to second marriages 
altogether,) and Tertullian (^^ De Monog." 9,) who 



Marriage and Divorce. 1 59 

speaks in this place^ as the context shows, for the Cath- 
olic Church, teach this clearly and unequivocally. The 
principle is recognized in the Apostolic Canons (Canon 
48, al. 47,) by the Council of Elvira, held at the begin- 
ning of the fourth century. Canon 9 (which, however, 
only speaks of a woman who has left an unfaithful hus- 
band), and by other early authorities. 

Adultery A]n^d Second Marriage. — However, the 
Eastern Christians, though not in the earliest times, 
came to understand our Lord's words as permitting a 
second marriage in the case of adultery, which was 
supposed to dissolve the marriage bond altogether. Such 
is the view and practice of the Greek and Oriental sects 
at the present day. And even in certain parts of the 
West similar views prevailed for a time. Many French 
synods {e. g,, those of Vannes in 465, and of Compi- 
egne, in 756) allow the husband of a wife who has been 
unfaithful to marry again in her life-time. Nay, the 
latter council permitted remarriage in other cases: — if a 
woman had a husband struck by leprosy and got leave 
from him to marry another, or if a man had given his 
wife leave to go into in a convent (Canons 16 and 19). 

Pope Gregory II., in a letter to St. Boniface, in the 
year 726, recommended that the husband of a wife 
seized by sickness which prevented cohabitation should* 
not marry again, but left him free to do so, provided he 
maintained his first wife. (Quoted by Hefele, ^^Beitrage,^' 
vol. ii., p. 376). At Florence the question of divorce 
was discussed between the Latins and Greeks, but after 
the decree of Union, and it is not known what answers 
the Greeks gave on the matter. 

The Council of Trent confirmed the present doctrine 
and discipline, which had long prevailed in the West, in 
the following words: ^' If any man say that the Church 



1 60 Marriage and Divorce, 

is in error because it has tanglit and teaches^ following 
the doctrine of the 'Gospels and the Apostles, that the 
bond of marriage cannot be dissolved because of the 
adultery of one or both parties, let him be anathema.'^ 
(Sess. xxiv., De Matrim. can. 5). The studious modera- 
tion of language here is obvious, for the canon does 
not directly require any doctrine to be accepted; it only 
anathematizes those who condemn a certain doctrine, 
and implies that this doctrine is taught by the Church 
and derived from Christ. It was the Venetian ambas- 
sadors who prevailed on the Fathers to draw up the 
canon in this indirect form, so as to avoid needless 
offence to the Greek subjects of Venice, in Cyprus, 
Candia, Corfu, Zante, and Cephalonia. The canon was 
no doubt chiefly meant to stem the erroneous views on 
divorce of Lutherans and Calvinists. 

The Romak Laws, — The effect of the spread of 
Christianity was to re-invest marriage vv^iththe religious 
character from which in the later law of Rome it had 
completely escaped. The history of divorce in modern 
times has been the gradual decay outside the Catholic 
Church of the restrictions w^hich were thought appro- 
priate to the religious character of the institution of 
marriage. In Roman law marriage was regarded as a 
voluntary union, which might be terminated at anytime 
by the consent of the parties. No legal process was 
required, although the abuse of the power of divorce 
Avas sometimes punished. Justinian settled the grounds 
of divorce as follows : — 

The- wife could divorce her husband — (1), for con- 
spiracy against the empire ; (2), attempting her life ; 
(3), attempting to induce her to commit adultery ; (4), 
wrongfully accusing her of adultery ; (5), taking a 
paramour to his house, or frequenting any other house 



Marriage and Divorce. 1 6 1 

in the same town with a paramour. On a divorce for 
these reasons the wife recovered her dowrj^ and obtained 
the hnsband^'s portion as well. If she was divorced 
for other reasons she forfeited her dowry, and conld 
not marry for five years^, as in tlie legislation of Theo- 
dosius and Valentinian. So a husband might justly 
divorce his wife for — (1), concealment of plots against 
the empire ; (2), adultery ; (3), attempting her hus- 
band's life^ or concealing plots against him ; (4), goii\? 
to baths or banquets with other men ; (5), remaining 
from home against her husband's wish ; (6), going to 
circus, theatre, or amphitheatre against his wish. 

A very interesfcing commentary on contemporary 
manners are the reasons given above for divorce. These 
experiments in divorce legislation display anxiety to 
regulate the relationship of marriage as a jDurely civil 
institution, with a view mainly to public decorum and 
the comfort of individuals. 

The Chaxge of the Caistox Law. — But great was 
the change from the pure Eoman law to the canon law. 
The ceremony became sacred, the tie indissoluble. 
Those Avhom God hath joined let no man put assunder, 
was the first text of the new law of marriage, and 
against such a prohibition social convenience and 
experience pleaded in vain, so far as the Catholic Church 
was concerned. It is different in other Churches. 
Says a Protestant writer, Professor Edward Eobertson: 
^^In countries which have embraced the doctrines of the 
Reformation, a relaxation of the law of divorce has 
generally followed the change of religion — whether 
immediately, as in Scotland, or indirectly, as in 
England. In Eoman Catholic countries the theory of 
the canon law still rules.'' 

But in Protestant England the change of religion bore 



I 62 Marriage and Divorce. 

heavily in this as in other things on the poor. It was 
only the rich who could obtain divorce. The poor were 
driven to bigamy, says the writer just quoted. Divorce 
was an expensive luxury, and a great number of forms 
had to be observed to obtain it. 

A Satire oj^ the English Law. — The satirical 
address of Mr. Justice Maule to a poor man convicted of 
bigamy, in 1845, put tlie absurdities of the existing 
English law in a very glaring light. The prisonerV 
wife had robbed him and had run away with another 
man. ^^ You should have brought an action,^' said the 
Justice, '^'^and obtained damages, which the other side 
would probably not have been able to pay, and you 
would have had to pay your own costs, perhaps £100 or 
£150. You should then have gone to the ecclesiastical 
courts and obtained a divorce a mensa et tlioro, and then 
to the House of Lords, where, having proved that these 
preliminaries had been complied with, you would have 
been enabled to marry again. The expense might have 
amounted to £500 or £600, or perhaps £1,000. You 
say you are a poor man. But I must tell you that there 
is not one law for the rich and another for the poor.^^ 

PREVALE]^fCE OF DiVORCE AMONG PrOTESTANTS. — 

It was not until 1857^ that an Act of Parliament 
established the Divorce Court, and now divorces in 
England are as plentiful as blackberries. Divorce in 
Scotland had the effect of remitting the parties to the 
state of unmarried persons. The law, however, made 
one exception. A divorced person was not allowed to 
marry the paramour, at all events if the paramour was 
named in the decree, and for this reason the name of 
the paramour is sometimes omitted, so that the parties 
may be allowed to marry if they wish. 

1\\ this country the law of divorce varies in different 



Marriage a7id Divorce. 163 

states. Each state determines for itself the causes fol* 
which divorce may be granted. In most states it 
appears to be allowed not only for adultery^ but for 
cruelty^ wilful desertion^ habitual drunkenness^ neglect^ 
refusal^ or inability to maintain one^s wife. Perhaps 
there is no other country in which divorce is so easily 
obtained as in America. The ''''Divorce Mill ^^ of 
Chicago is a standing reproach to us. 

In France divorce was allowed after the Eevolution, 
but soon the old canon law was re-inforced and still 
prevails. 

Dr. Tallage on" Marriage.— The number of 
ruined homes in America because of the lightness and in- 
difference with which marriage is regarded and the great 
facilities for divorce have often been commented upon. 
Let us take the testimony of a popular Protestant 
minister^ who has been heard on both sides of the 
Atlantic. The Eev. Dr. De Witt Talmage, of Brooklyn, 
preaching in the beginning of the present year (1888) 
said : — 

*^^Theologians have differed upon and discussed this 
subject and offered various explanations, but I will not 
be drawn into the discussion, I will not be diverted 
from the tremendous fact, about which there is no 
dispute, that it is a terrible, a fearful thing to vow a 
vow.^^ 

Speaking of the terrible consequences of broken vows 
he said that the wards of our asylums were filled with 
unfortunate females who were the victims of broken 
vows. This minister fully recognized the looseness 
of the marriage tie in his own Church. '^ There are 
parts of this country where promise of marriage,'^ said 
the preacher, '^ is treated very much as a joke. The 
joke has, unhappily, too often disastrous consequences. 



1 64 Marriage and Divorce, 

I hold that in nine hundred and ninty-nine cases out of 
a thousand promise to marry is as sacred and as binding 
as marriage itself. You do not treat lightly your 
promise in business matters. You do not neglect your 
promissory note. Your house might be lost if you did. 
Will you compare the heart and the happiness of a man 
or woman with a house ? The most shameful^ the most 
disgraceful of all lies is a broken espousal. But, you say^ 
^suppose I change my mind on reconsidering matters.^ 
I care not for what reason you change your mind. You 
made the vow, and you will be held responsible if you 
live, or whether you live or not.^^ 

The Doctor told a story of a man who broke his first 
vow^ and who^ making and carrying out a second engage- 
ment, spent his life in repeating the experience of 
Shakespeare^s '^'^ Taming of the Shrew. ^^ ^^ Make no 
rash vows,^^ said the Doctor, " but when you make a 
promise keep it. I will not say that there are not 
exceptional cases. But I will say that in the great 
majority of cases broken vows must be followed by 
punishment. ^^ 

*^^The great trouble, ^^ continues the loreacher, *^^is 
that there is too much frivolity about this matter. It is 
a kind of frivolity that too often results in a kind of 
hell upon earthy where the devil has things all his own 
way. It is high time that the pulpit should make 
itself heard in tones of thunder. Public sentiment is 
loose on the subject, and I denounce the sentiment 
that prevails. 

Look Before you Leap. — " Some of you are say- 
ing: ^Suppose we find out something wrong after we 
have vowed the vow. Is it not wiser to break the 
vow in time than to enter upon an arrangement from 
which nothing but misery can result?' Nonsense! 



Marriage and Divorce, 165 

Find out in time. You have abundance of opportunity. 
If you cannot find out in time and before you make the 
voAV you are much better fitted for a lunatic asylum 
than for marriage. Don't marry till you get an undis- 
puted title.'" 

The preacher called especially upon women to beware. 
Men could get away sometimes from the unpleasantness. 
They could go to the club. They could smoke them- 
selves stupid^ they could drink themselves drunk. But 
women had to stay and endure. Carpet knights^ he 
said, were to be avoided by the one sex, and that most 
God-forsaken of all women, the flirt, was to be avoided 
by the other sex. 

A Dakgerous State. — According to the opinion of 
the Fathers and of Christian moralists, if every state be 
exposed to danger, then matrimony is one of the most 
dangerous. The point is to reconcile conjugal liberty 
with continence and chastity; a true and intimate friend- 
ship for a creature with an inviolable fidelity to the 
Creator ; an exact, diligent, watchful care of temporal 
affairs with an external disengagement from the things 
of this world. 

IxcoxTiXEXCE OF Matrtmoxy — '' The first danger,'" 
says Bourdaloue, '"'is the incontinence of matrimony. 
St. Jerome, writing to a virgin, and instructing her in 
the duties of celibacy, a state in which she professed to 
live, was not afraid to express his thoughts in certain 
terms that might hurt her delicacy. And he gave for 
reason that he deemed it better to run the hazard of 
not speaking with sufficient reserve, than to hide truths 
from her which immediately concerned her eternal wel- 
fare. And, perhaps, he had good reason to deliver him- 
self of that letter. * * * Matrimony is a state of chastity 
and continence, as well as celibacy, whatever difference 



1 66 Marriage and Divorce, 

there may be between them in other respects. There 
are laws in matrimony ordained by God which it is not 
allowable to trangress. All the irregularities committed 
in matrimony^ far from being excused, or in some shape 
justified by the sacrament, contract thereby a particular 
malignity and deformity/^ 

Conjugal Chastity. — Let us ask our readers if any 
minister of God is justified in voluntarily running the 
risk of adding to the occasions of sin? Here are 
matrimonial laws, which, as Bourdaloue observes, it is a 
grievous sin to break. The priest, by marrying, runs 
into temptation. In the unmarried state he is free 
from such temptation. As an an athlete strengthens 
his body by constant exercise, so the soul of the 
unmarried priest is strengthened by continual conti- 
nence. This particular occasion of sin is always absent; 
therefore, the easier it is for him to serve God with a 
pure heart and to edify others by his example. St. 
Jerome says of the three kinds of chastity — virginity, 
widowhood, and matrimony — conjugal chastity, though 
the most imperfect, is yet the most difficult ; because, 
he adds, it is much easier to abstain entirely than 
behave moderately and renounce absolutely the flesh, 
the domestic enemy, than prescribe its laws and repress 
its sallies. Virginity, says St. Jerome, by preserving 
itself, subdues almost without fighting. Hardly is it 
acquainted with the danger, because it keeps at« a 
remote distance. The same may be said proportionately 
of widowhood. But the case is entirely different with 
respect to conjugal chastity. ^^ Between that and 
impurity there is only a step/^ is the commentary of 
Bardaloue, '^ but a step that leads to a crime deserving 
of eternal woe.'^ 

All who enter the clerical state are not perfect. Some 



Marriage and Divorce. 167 

ministers and some priests cannot wholly repress their 
passions and animosities. Left to themselves and mak- 
ing a sincere effort they may succeed. With a compan- 
ion, like a wife, who feels bound to flatter them, or at 
least to fall into their whims, their passions are more or 
less inflamed, their sinful inclinations more or less 
helped along. The union brings sin to another. The 
Catholic celibate, if he sins at all, sins alone. The mar- 
ried minister causes another to share in his sinful 
thoughts and acts. Nay, should his children be old 
enough to share in his animosities and passions he brings 
sin to several. Can you not see, therefore, how great 
is the danger that lurks in matrimony for the priest? 
Mutual Fellowship. — To this first danger, incon- 
tinence, which Bourdaloue has referred to, he adds an- 
other which is in the same train of thought we have ex- 
pressed. '' It is,"^ says the great French pulpiteer, 
'^ mutual fellowship, of which the effect should be so 
perfect a union of hearts, that for your spouse you 
should be disposed to give up everything, to sacrifice 
everything, but with this exception, so rare and delicate, 
that conjugal love does not supersede the love of God ; 
that man and wife should be so affected one to another 
that at the same time both one and the other be still 
more strongly affected to God ; that a wife disposed to 
follow all the reasonable inclinations of her husband, 
have still fortitude enough to resist him whenever he 
would have her fall in with his passions, bear a part in 
his irregularities, lend an ear to his defamatory or im- 
pious discourses, join in his resentments, or be aiding 
his revenge. Accordingly, when your husband has 
received an injury, when he has been unjustly offended 
or outraged, it is allowable for you to be affected with 
his case, to partake in his afflictions, to procure him 



1 68 Marriag-e and Divorce 



^ 



just and suitable satisfaction; this you may do; nay, 
this you are bound to do. But to proceed farther : to 
adopt his animosities and aversions^ to abet his frantic 
sallies and violence, to agree to everything which an 
embittered and inflamed heart inspires, is not to behave 
like a Christian woman/^ 

The celibate priest, when his passions are touched, can 
retire to solitude to pray and to wrestle with his feelings. 
The chances are that he will conquer. The married 
minister sits down with his wife, and naturally pours 
into her ear what lias affected him, and the chances are 
that her affection for him may rouse in her resentment 
against those who have offended him. And so there is 
a double sin. But even should he retire to his ^^ study ^^ 
(what a miserable substitute for the sanctuary of the 
altar!) to pray, his meditations may be interrupted by 
his children, and so the occasion lost for the strengthen- 
ing of good resolves. ^ 

Pleasiistg only her Husband. — And this is what 
St. Paul meant to teach the Corinthians when he made 
the happiness of virgins to consist in not being divided 
between God and the world, and in not being charged 
with the obligation and care of pleasing men, but only 
Jesus Christ, the spouse of their souls: — '^ And the un- 
married woman and the virgin thinketh on the things of 
the Lord."' — (I. Cor. vii.) St. Paul points out that a 
married woman is always at a loss how to preserve, at 
the same time, the affection of her husband and the 
favor of God; being obliged .to preserve, so far as she is 
able, both the one and the other, and yet not knowing, 
on a thousand occasions, how to reconcile both obliga- 
tions. She may give up God to please her husband. 
Then, should she have strength to resist her husband, 
dissensions arise, and sin is added to sin. 



Marr^iage and Divorce. 169 

KSome years ago two continents rang with a great 
Protestant scandal. Far be it from ns to say one word 
against the late Eev. Henry Ward Beecher. He was a 
great preacher^ and a man of great charity. But 'what 
we wish to emphasize is this: that, because he was a 
married minister, the charge against him in reference to 
Mrs. Tilton was made all the more of. Had he been an 
unmarried minister the case would not have received 
the great prominence it did. No Catholic priest of 
the same degree of popularity had ever been placed in 
so embarrassing a position. 

Providixg for his OrrspRi:N'G. — The idea of the 
w^orld, and to a large extent it is a just one, is that a 
husband should give up everything for his wife. Of 
course, this does not include honor and virtue, but what 
is understood is that a husband should devote himself 
so completely to the happiness of his wife and family, 
that he has no care or thought for anything, save in so 
far as it promotes the object of his life. It is the duty 
of a father of a family to attend strictly to his business, 
so that there may be an adequate provision for his wife 
(should he die first) and for his offspring. A married 
clergyman who does his whole duty in this respect to 
his family, w^ho is compelled to engage in some profes- 
sional pursuit to supplement a possibly small salary, 
cannot do his whole duty to his God and the souls com- 
mitted to his care. If, on the other hand, he devotes 
himself exclusively to religion, the interests of his fam- 
ily mu»t suffer. What right, then, has he to marry, to 
bring children into the world, knowing at the outset, 
from the nature of his calling, that he cannot have the 
time or the opportunity to provide for a family? It is a 
divided allegiance, and, if his soul be a sensitive one, 
must bring him only grief in the end. 



170 Marriage and Divorce. 

Educatio:^^ of Childrejs^.— The education of chil- 
dren lays a strict obligation on the father of attending 
to temporal affairs. The obligation is a rock against 
which it is no easy matter to avoid splitting. " Who 
cannot see/^ says Pere Bonrdalone, ^^the extreme dif- 
ficnlty of reconciling together the care of property and a 
disengagement from that same property? According to 
the gospel, if yon neglect to provide for your children in 
a manner suitable to their condition, you incur guilt in 
the presence of God; and if again, with the view of pro- 
viding for your children, you suffer your heart to be 
possessed with a desire of the love of riches, you have no 
right to or hope of salvation. In the marriage state you 
are not allowed, as others are, to relinquish everything 
in order to follow Jesus Christ. You must possess, you 
must preserve, you must labor in a reasonable manner to 
acquire; but in possessing, preserving and acquiring, 
you must wean your heart from all terrene affections. 
So speaks St. Paul. Hearken to his words: — 

" ' This, therefore, I say brethren, it remaineth that 
those who have wives be as though they had none; and 
they who buy, as though they possessed not; and 
they who use this world, as though they used it not.^ — 
I. Cor. vii. 

'' The reason of it is given by the same Apostle: — 

^'^'^For the figure of this world passeth away.^ — I. 
Cor. vii. 

^' And for my part I am bold enough to add, applying 
to you this point of doctrine, that the attention which 
you may give, and which you ought to give, to the 
things of this world, takes off in no manner the obli- 
gation of renouncing them in heart and will. This our 
Blessed Saviour made a general law for all mankind; and 
as this law^ St. Chrysostom tells us, cannot mean a real 



Marriage and Divorce, 1 7 1 

and effective renunciation^ it must be understood nec- 
essarily of mental renunciation : ' He that forsaketh 
not all/ ^"^ — Luke xiv. 

A Cumbrous Duty. — Truly, the bringing up of chil- 
dren, whether regular or irregular in their conduct and 
behavior, is generally for parents a cumbrous duty and 
a heavy cross. " What a melancholy thing it is/^ says 
Bourdaloue, '^to have a numerous family, and to want 
the means of providing for them! To have children 
capable of any business and not be able to procure them 
employment! To be under the necessity of letting them 
pass their days in a constrained idleness and obscurity, 
in which their birth, the credit of their family, and 
their personal merit are buried and lost! What sorrow 
and regret, when an unforeseen accident, an unexpected 
death, snatches away children all at once, on whom their 
parents doted and built their fondest hopes! ^^ 

How can a married minister do his duty to his par- 
ishioners under these circumstances? Must he not and 
will he not devote most of his attention to keeping away 
and preserving his children from whatever may corrupt 
their hearts — domestic irregularities, loose conversation, 
dangerous company, obscene plays, bad books? Naturally 
his heart will be more with them than with his flock. 

UNSYMPATHETIC Heaets. — We have already said 
that the young clergyman in his choice of a companion 
is guided more by impulse than reason. Few men will 
marry an ugly woman simply because of her qualities of 
head and heart. Dwelling upon this companionship, 
Bourdaloue observes: — '^'^ If we find it difficult to bear 
with ourselves, shall we find it easier to bear with an- 
other? Of so many marriages which we see contracted 
every day, how many are cemented by a sympathy of 
hearts? And should there be an antipathy, what 



1 72 Marriage and Divorce. 

martyrdom can be more cruel. This is the most deplor- 
able circumstance of all^ that these domestic trials and 
contradictions but serve to keep you farther away from 
God^ and to make you the more criminal in his divine 
presence. Thus circumstanced^ married persons seek 
comfort abroad; they turn their inclinations into an- 
other channel, and what irregularities does not this 
draw after it! AVhat animosities and aversions do they 
not harbor in their breasts! With what murmurs and 
complaints^ in what distress^ despair, and resentment, is 
a long succession of j^ears run out! They remain in 
these dispositions till death; and (as St. Bernard said) 
all they do is to go from one hell to another, from a 
hell of sin and wickedness to a hell of pains and pun- 
ishments, from the hell of matrimony to the hell of the 
devils and the damned. ^^ 

There is kg Protestant Bourdaloue.^ — Who will 
regard matrimony lightly and say it is good for all con- 
ditions of men and women after studying these words 
of Bourdaloue? And who was this great French 
preacher. Not a clergyman with a taint upon his char- 
acter, not a fanatic, not an ignorant man, not a priest 
under censure. He was one of the most illustrious men 
of his time. At the age of sixteen, he entered the 
Society of Jesus and there completed his studies. His 
able masters, who early discerned his talents, succes- 
sively confided to him the chairs of humanity, rhetoric, 
philosophy, and moral theology. Bourdaloue suddenly 
appeared in the midst of the glories and fascinations of 
the court of Louis XIV., but never failed in denouncing 
the follies and vices of the age. After the revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes, he was sent to Languedoc to 
preach to the Protestants and confirm the newly con- 
verted in the Catholic faith. ''And in this delicate 



Marriage and Divorce^ i "j^ 

mission/^ says a Protestant writer^ " he managed 
to reconcile the interests of his ministry with the 
sacred rights of humanity." In the later years of 
his life he abandoned the pulpit and devoted himself 
to charitable assemblies^ hospitals^ and prisons. Can 
our adversaries point to such a man on their side, who 
• has been praised by Lord Brougham, and Avhom later 
critics have held up as a model of virtue, eloquence, 
and learning? 

Could Bourdaloue have been as great had he been a 
married man ? Could he have cultivated his gifts had he 
mingled with the world? Cicero supplies the answer in 
a passage preserved by St. Augustine: — " Corporeal 
pleasures," says the eloquent Eoman, " are incompatible 
with great thought. For how can a man give himself 
up to these kind of pleasures, and at the same time 
exercise his brain in thinking and reasoning?" 

Celibacy ais^d Genius.— ''He who abandons him- 
self to the pleasures of the flesh," says St. Chrysostom, 
''and who fixes his mind upon worldly objects, can 
conceive nothing that is great and exalted." " The 
savant/' says St. Jerome, "ought not to marry, other- 
wise, no more philosophical studies for him. It is 
impossible for him to give himself up at the same time 
to his books and his wife." 

In modern times men of letters abstain from mar- 
riage, lest it should interfere with their studies. With 
little money, they feel that the cares of a family, added 
to their own, would change that independent feeling 
without which their talent could not be exercised, and 
their genius have full scope. Without this clerical 
celibacy, should we have had those magnificent libraries 
that adorn our great cities, those grand products of the 
Christian mind. And those immortal works of an- 



1 74 Marriage and Divorce, 

tiquity, would they not have perished were it not for the 
monasteries? The revival of literature in France^ which 
is a part of France^s glory^ was due entirely to the clergy. 
Should we have had so many daring missionaries^ open- 
ing up new countries to our view, if marriage instead of 
celibacy had been the rule? Should we have had self- 
sacrificing priests going beyond the seas, penetrating 
savage regions, exposing themselves to all kinds of suf- 
ferings, to tortures, and death, and all for the glory of 
God, :^ they had had wives and children. Should we 
have had an Augustine in England, a Boniface m Ger- 
many, a Denis in France, if they had had families? 

It is not necessary to state the conclusion — it is self- 
evident. 

Ak aid to GovER:NrMEXT. — The priesthood is a ne- 
cessity in the government of man, and the priesthood, if 
not continent, is absolutely worthless. Says the Count 
de Maistre, and the statement is worth considering : — 

" What is the religious state in Catholic countries? 
So to speak an ennobled serfdom . To the ancient in- 
stitution itself, so useful in many respects, this state 
adds a number of particular advantages, and removes it 
from all abuses. The vow of religion, instead of de- 
grading man, sanctifies him. Instead of enslaving him 
to the vices of others, it emancipates him from them. 
In subjecting him to an elected superior, it declares him 
free in regard to other men, with whom he can no 
longer have any transaction. As often as the wills of 
men can be subdued without degrading the individual 
an inestimable service is rendered to society in relieving 
the government of the care of watching over these men, 
of employing, and especially of paying them. ISTever 
was there a happier idea than that of uniting in one 
body a number of peaceful citizens who labor, pray. 



Marriage and Divorce. 175 

study, write, give alms, cultivate the ground, and a^k 
nothing of authority. 

OvEKCROVTDED Profkssions. — '' This truth is particu- 
larly apparent in our days, when from all quarters men 
are throwing themselves upon the resources of the gov- 
ernment, which knows not how to dispose of them. 
Our youth, impetuous, innumerable, unfortunately for 
itself, crowd into the career of public employments. 
There are four or five times more candidates than is 
necessary for every imaginable profession. You will 
not find an office in Europe [and the French author 
could add in America] in which the number of persons 
employed has not tripled or quadrupled within fifty 
years. Public business, it is said, has increased; but 
men create all this business, and too many interfere in 
it. All, at the same time, hasten towards power and 
the duties therewith connected: they forcibly open every 
door and necessitate the creation of new places; there is 
too much liberty, too much movement, too many wills 
let loose in the world. A mob of fools have inquired 
^ of what use are religious people?^ How then! may 
not men serve the Church without being invested with 
a charge? And is the chaining up the passions and 
neutralizing vice of no consideration? Hundreds and 
hundreds of writers have pointed out, in the clearest 
manner, the numerous services the religious state has 
rendered to society; but" I think it advantageous to 
make it be considered in the view that has been hitherto 
least attended to, and which, assuredly, was not the 
least important — as master and director of a multitude 
of wills — as an invaluable supplement to government, 
w^hose greatest interest it is to moderate the internal 
movement, of the state, and to increase the number of 
men who have nothing to ask of it.^^ — (The Pope.) 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Sensational Slanders. 

The Latest akd Worst Attacks on Catholic 
Practices — Ridiculous Allegatio]^s About the 
co]nrfessio]nal a^^d seminaries — a brilliant 
List of Converts to Catholicity Refutes the 
False Charges — Ignorance and Mendacity. 

'^ Protestants and the followers of the Voltairian 
philosophy/^ says the Abbe Jager^ ^Hiave not under- 
stood the reasons ' for celibacy. Most of them have 
looked upon it simply as a political movement on the 
part of Rome. Often our theologians^ in arguing with 
them^ have advanced against them only the precept of 
the Church. Neither has gone quite to the bottom of 
the subject. Remaining on the surface^ they could only 
see that celibacy had for basis some intrinsic reason 
independent of a political one^ the holiness in- 
separable from the ecclesiastical ministry. We do not 
wish to say, however, that celibacy is anything but a 
matter of discipline, and that the Church can, under 
certain circumstances, make an exception to the rule. 
But this discipline has roots so deep, and is so intimately 
bound up with dogma and with the character of the 
priesthood, that it is impossible for the Church to abolish 
it. It has been observed from the dawn of Christianity 
and under most adverse circumstances. Irrefutable 
testimony has established this fact.^' 



Sensational Slanders, 177 

A Tirade of Abuse. — Now^ the last book which at- 
tacks the Catholic Priesthood advances no testimony 
against the rule of celibacy. In a word, it is simply a 
tirade of abuse from beginning to end. It is not an 
edifying sight to see a Protestant minister thus bring 
disgrace upon his ow^n order. The worthy Protestant 
clergymen with w^hom we have spoken about it have 
condemned the book as sensational and immoral. The 
very style in which it is printed and bound proves it. 
No decent, honorable controversialist would attempt 
anything like it. Men of education and intellect would 
not glance a second time at it. It is intended only to 
beguile the ignorant and pander to the depraved taste 
of a small class. 

Persons eminent for sanctity, for great learning, of 
noble lives and purity of purpose, do not go about 
preaching a crusade of this kind against the Catholic 
Church. No ignorance is so dense as the ignorance of 
fanaticism. The bigot is generally, if not always, an 
illiterate and ill-bred person. To argue with him would 
be useless. 

No Deceit Authoeity Quoted. — The iirst thing 
that strikes the reader in this work is the almost total 
absence of any decent authority to support the extra- 
ordinary statements in which it abounds. The favorite 
and perpetually recurring authorities quoted are apos- 
tate priests, — men dismissed from the service of the 
Church on account of their scandalous lives, — such as 
Llorente, Hogan (the author of the schism in Philadel- 
phia sixty years ago)> and the infamous Father Chiniqui, 
of more modern times. 

Lloreis^te's Bad Career. — Don Juan Antonio 
Llorente, born at Calatorra, in Spain, 1756, was a traitor 
alike to his Church and to the State. He was secretary 



178 Sensational Slanders, 

to the Inquisition at Madrid^ for two years^ from 1790 
to 1792^ and was dismissed for irregular conduct. 
Detected in secret correspondjenec with the enemies of 
his country, in 1793, on writing letters of repentance he 
was received again into favor. At the court of Ferdi- 
nand VII., King of Spain, he was loaded with honors, 
and yet, on the first invasion of the French, he turned 
traitor to his country and ranged himself on the side 
of her enemies. He now paid his court to the new 
king, Joseph Bonaparte, taking the oath of fidelity to 
him; was appointed one of his secret counsellors; and 
at the command of Joseph he began, in 1809, to write a 
history of the Spanish Inquisition. When the sun of 
the Bonaparte family was set forever, he again paid his 
court to King Ferdinand, whom he had already aban- 
doned and betrayed, addressing letters full of flattery to 
the king and to the Chapter at Toledo. When his arts 
proved unavailing, he gave way to all the bitterness of 
his heart, writing his " Portraits of the Popes, ^^ full of 
invectives and misrepresentations. 

He was finally banished from France for improper 
conduct. When accused of illicit relations with a 
French countess, at the age of ^^, his friends defended 
him on the ground that he had previously married her, 
although he was a priest who had vowed celibacy. He 
finally died at Madrid, February 25th, 1823, in the 
67th year of his age. Had the Spanish government and 
the Inquisition been such as he represented them, he 
would not, perhaps, have been permitted to re-enter 
Spain and terminate *his life peacefully in his own 
country. Ranke, an unexceptional Protestant witness^ 
in his " History of the Ottoman .and Spanish Empires 
in the Seventeenth Century,^^ testifies that Llorente 
wrote the book in the interest of the Josephine admin- 



Sensational Slanders, 179 

istration, adding that ^^ the Inquisition was, in spirit 
and tendency above all, a political institution/^ " The 
Pope/' he says, '' had an interest in thwarting it, and 
he did so as often as he could, but the king had an 
interest in constantly upholding it/^ 

As a sample of Llorente^s fairness, it is sufficient to 
quote a fact which he makes public in his own work, 
namely, that he destroyed all the reports of that tribunal, 
with certain exceptions. So that he admits that he 
burned the documents of that very institution whose 
history he undertook to write. (Balmez^s Protestantism 
and Catholicity Compared, page 401.) 

HoGAi^.^ — The Keverend Mr. Hogan was dismissed 
from the seminary of Maynooth for irregular conduct; 
from the diocese of Limerick for irregular conduct ; 
from the diocese of New York for the same cause, 
and having been solemnly excommunicated from the 
Catholic Church, he recanted his errors; then fell back 
again, married and remarried, became a custom house 
officer in Boston, and then wrote scurrilous pamphlets 
against the Catholic Church, intended to fill his purse 
and awaken anti-Catholic and Know-Nothing prejudices. 
(Shea and de Courcey^s History of the Church in the 
United States, page 231). 

And yet, these are the authorities just and potent this 
minister brings forth as his witnesses in supporting his 
infamous charges ! 

On page 20 the apostle of this filthy crusade says : — 
' ^ That a woman may obey the priest in everything he 
commands her to do, and that she can never be called to 
account to God for any action which may have been 
performed to please her priest."^ We distinctly charge 
the Eeverend author with the grossest ignorance of 
Catholic doctrine, or the grossest misrepresentation. 



i8o Sensational Slanders. 

We defy him to point out any statement of any Catholic 
authority that teaches or insinuates the monstrous 
doctrine that " a women may obey a priest in everything 
that he commands her to do/'' and that '^ God will not 
call her to account for any action performed to please 
the priest.'^ 

Wholesale Calumis^y. — In the next sentence, he 
states that ^^ penitents are compelled to answer questions 
of the most revolting character/^ that " every j)riest is 
compelled by Ms oath to pollute the minds and the 
hearts of the mothers, wives, and daughters with whom 
he comes in contact/^ What is this unheard of oath ? 
The author does not pretend to advance one word of 
proof in support of this awful and wholesale calumny. 

Another authority quoted by him is Michelet, with 
regard to whom one may consult Spalding^s Miscella- 
nies, Vol. ii., pages 436 to 452. 

On iDage 44, he states that Pope Siricius, (from the 
year 384 to 398), first enjoined the celibacy of the 
clergy. In the very document contemplated by the 
author the Pope goes on to state that the law of 
celibacy was already an old custom in the Church. 

On page 49, the author says that Ambrose led in 
the fight against celibacy, Avhich is nonsense. Ambrose 
always held and taught the efficacy of celibacy. 

On page 50, he states that a part of the ablest patrons 
of Eomanism held that celibacy was historically false, 
and gives as authorities Erasmus, Polydorus, Alvarusy 
and Pius. Polydorus and Alvarus are unknown, 
Erasmus is no theologian of any reputation as a Catholic, 
and Pope Pius the Second never said what the author 
attributes to him. 

Dens. — On page 74, according to the author, 
{passim) every priest wallows in the impurities of 



Sensational Slanders. i8i 

Dens. In the first place^ not a copy of Dens can be 
had in any Catholic store in America ! Consequently, 
how are the clergy and students to provide themselves 
with the volume in question ? Secondly, the parts 
objected to in Dens are simply necessary portions of 
moral theology, to be read with proper precaution, and 
not to gratify a^ prurient mind, but to avoid grave 
mistakes in serious matters, such as would be the 
direction of conscience. It can be no worse for the 
moralist to discuss sins of the soul^ as we have already 
remarked, than for the physician or surgeon to instruct 
himself with regard to diseases of the body, and one 
might as well object to improper impressions to be 
formed from reading medical works as to the scientific 
treatment of similar subjects in theology. Objections 
might be plausibly urged even against portions of 
Scripture. 

On page 99 and subsequent pages is a great deal of 
rubbish, and falsehood, and nonsense, with regard to the 
Sacred Order' of the Blessed Creatures, We are quite 
safe in offering a reward of ten thousand dollars to any- 
one who can prove the existence of such an order. It is 
a most astonishing exhibition of the facility with which 
people can be imposed upon, that they are willing to 
believe, even for a moment, in the existence of such an 
association. The man who can believe that such things 
are practised in the Catholic Church could believe any- 
thing. 

A Mysterious Iis^stitute. — On page 111 the author 
professes to note the obligations of members joining this 
wonderful mysterious institute. Thus the candidate 
'^swears implicit obedience to all clergymen, members 
of the society, especially to him who shall be her pas- 
tor,'^ and also to be most faithful in the discharge of all 



i82 Sensational Slanders. 

duties, ^'particularly in not revealing the secrets, in- 
signia, or duties of the society/^ In answer to this, 
we affirm that there is no such society in the entire 
world; consequently, no such oath. Only a simpleton 
could accept such stories. 

Next, he asserts that the candidate states what is the 
language and conduct of every female member and re- 
ports the same; that the candidate promises and swears 
to take vengeance and to pursue even to death any mem- 
ber who may become dissatisfied with the requirements 
of the clerical members; to deny, under oath if need 
be, any charge or statement made against a clergyman 
that may be reported to the outside world. If she be 
a married woman, she promises to be faithful to her pas- 
tor and to consider and serve him, if a member, as her 
only true and lawful husband, blessed before God and 
His Church, and also agrees to abstain from serving her 
ostensible husband, as the laws of man are more binding 
than the laws of God. We never read more arrant non- 
sense and more wicked lies than the foregoing. Other 
drivel in the same strain, on page 112, we forbear to quote. 

Strakge Grudultty. — On page 140 the reverend 
ignoramus says: — " The next day she told me that in the 
Convent it was imperative to take communion every 
day, and that it required nearly a whole day."" If any one 
will attend any mass in any Catholic church and see 
people approach the altar to receive Holy Communion, 
he will ascertain how much time it takes to receive 
the sacrament. How can anybody in his senses affirm 
that an act which takes about half a minute requires 
nearly a whole day? It is hard to conceive the credulity 
of Protestants who can be imposed upon by such palpa- 
ble lies as this. 

As to Maria Monk^s '' awful disclosures/^ (page 152^^ 



Sensational Slander: 183 

and the following pages)^ Colonel Stone^ of this City, 
took the trouble to go to Montreal on purpose and to 
refute her romance. He proves it to be a romance in 
almost every particular. As a question of veracity be- 
tween Maria Monk (a bad creature, according to her 
own account, and who afterwards died as a drunken 
harlot on BlackwelFs Island) ^ and Colonel Stone, a re- 
putable Protestant gentlemen of New York, the choice 
is not ambiguous.^ 

On page 161 it is stated that the nuns were taught 
over and over again that the priest could not sin. Who- 
ever taught such nonsense as this? It is bad enough for 
Protestants to say that Papal infallibility means that 
the Pope cannot sin, but whoever yet taught that no 
single one of the two hundred thousand priests of the 
Catholic Church could not commit sin? 

Ax Amusikg Blui^dee. — One of the most amusing 
blunders of this book is the account of the training of 
the candidates for priesthood. He says the young men 
give themselves to ^'^ the study of ridiculous theology." 
This man, utterly ignorant of the first principles of 
theology, presumes to criticise the theology of the 
Catholic Church, that has produced the greatest thinkers 
on deep religious questions. He affirms that ^^ every 
discussion against popery is so severely forbidden that 
he who reads any such discussions incurs excommunica- 
tion ?Jp6'0 /ac^^o ; therefore, the students are unaware of 
the doctrines of other religions.^' Where does this per- 
son find sanction for such excommunication? Is he 
inventing a theology of his own? And is he playing 
Pope, and flinging around anathemas according to his 
own sweet will? 

1 See Bishop England's Works, Yol. 5, p. 418. 

5» See Bishop England's Works, Yol. 5, pp. 39^7-398 et seq. 



184 Sensational Slanders. 

What Catholic ever heard of such excommunication? 
What Catholic list of censures ever mentions such a 
•ridiculous one as this? Truly, ' "^ the theology ^^ of the 
man ^^is ridiculous/^ If he ever dipped into any book 
of Catholic theology^ he' would .find that the dogmas of 
other religions are very accurately stated. Consequently, 
theological students cannot be unaware of the doctrines 
of other religions, except by their own negligence. But 
let us enter this wonderful training school of priests. 
^^Impenetrable silence/^ he says, '^is the rule.^^ In 
what seminary? In what house of learning? Is it a 
new institution of his own imagination? He says the 
young ecclesiastics take the vows of celibacy, obedience, 
and poverty, and in due time learn to break them all. 
Where does the ecclesiastical student promise to observe 
the vow of poverty? Is this writer so very ignorant 
that he does not know the first rudiments of ecclesias- 
tical life? 

Let us consider the distribution of time in his semin- 
ary? ^^All arise at 1:30 A. M. and assemble in the 
choir to sing Latin canticles, known as Matins. ^^ Here 
he confounds all seminarians with an order of monks; 
and not even all monks arise in the night to sing 
matins, but only those like the Carthusian monks in 
France. After meditation, two Masses follow, accord- 
ing to his fertile imagination; then a further meditation. 
The beds are put in order before breakfast, and after 
breakfast three-quarters of an hour are again devoted to 
the necessary household work. What household work, 
considering that every seminary in the country has a 
full staff of servants? Then examination of conscience, 
one-fourth of an hour. This exercise, at that particular 
time, takes place in no seminary in the world. After- 
wards follow Vespers, spiritual reading, and again, at 



Sensational Slanders, 185 

5:45, each one goes to arrange his room. What has dis- 
turbed it during the day? We have, according to this 
Eeverend blunderer, '^ two hours a day assigned to study; 
one occupied with Latin grammar, and the other in 
translating into English a few Latin verses of Scrip- 
ture/' 

The Tkuth Stated. — Now, if any man will take up 
the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, page 85 to 90, 
and see the course made obligatory in all seminaries of 
the United States, embracing Logic, Metaphysics, 
Ethics, the principles of Natural Law, natural sciences. 
Dogmatic and Moral Theology, biblical exegesis, eccles- 
iastical history, canon law, theoretical and practical 
liturgy, sacred eloquence, ascetical theology, and consider 
how all this is narrowed down to '' one hour of Latin 
Grammar and another hour of Latin version; '^ that, 
moreover, no one can be admitted into the ecclesiastical 
seminary unless he has already studied at least six years 
in a preparatory institution, devoting his time to the 
classics and the various branches ^^ei'taining to a col- 
lege course, he will wonder more and more at the intol- 
erable impudence and effrontery of the man who, with 
all these documents staring him in the face, and within 
the reacli of every one, nevertheless dares to put forth to 
the public such bold and unblushing lies; and yet this 
is the reverend gentleman who poses as the advocate of 
truth? 

QuESTio^s^s i:n" CoKFESSiOii;".~On the interrogations 
or questions to be made in Confesssion we might 
quote Konings, II. p. 154-11. n. 4. (L. vi. 607. ii. ) 
p. 157, 2), but it is unnecessary. • 

All theologians admit and teach that it is better con- 
fesssion should lack completeness than that scandal arise 
by imprudent questions. An imprudence of this kind 



1 86 Sensational Slanders, 

would be committed when it would involve the risk of 
doing more harm than good, as, — e,g,^ if the penitent 
should thereby be led to learn some evil that he did not 
previously know. The Eoman Eitual, on the Eubrics 
for the Sacrament of Penance, insists particularly on 
prudence in asking questions in the Sacred Tribunal, 
lest any one should learn things of which he was hither- 
to unconscious, and so learn how to commit sin. 

Ax Ill-equipped Controversialist. — "VV^e will 
not load this book with further quotations. Any one 
desirous of still further studying the confessional may 
consult the best standard Catholic works we have cited. 
For this man to have discharged his task properly, he 
ought first to have made an accurate study of Eoman 
Catholic dogmas and practices before passing a sweep- 
ing condemnation. Common fairness to a foe demands 
this. It is clear he has made no such preparation what- 
ever. In the first place he does not quote, at first hand, 
a single Catholic author. In the second place, his 
favorite war-horses and his great arsenals are apostate 
priests and nuns, such as Llorente, Hogan, Maria 
Monk, Eebecca Theresa Eeid, and Chiniqui. The 
Eev. Dr. Forbes was once a Protestant minister, and 
then a Catholic, and finally he returned to his first be- 
lief. The Eev. Dr. Edward McGlynn is a suspended 
priest who has time and again spoken slightingly and 
insultingly of the Pope, and has vigorously denounced 
what he terms ''^the ecclesiastical machine.''^ These are 
men above the ordinary standard and Dr. Forbes^ 
private character was unblemished. Now, if the alleged 
abominable practices existed, if such a society of women 
were a fact, would not Dr. Forbes have revealed the 
practices and denounced the society, and would he not 
have published that as a valid reason for his abandon- 



Sensational Slanders, 187 

meiit of the Catholic Church? Would not Dr. Mc- 
Glynn do the same? Is he the kind of a man who would 
be silent under such circumstances? No, Dr. McGlynn 
and men like him have condemned all that they can 
conscientiously condemn in the Catholic system, and 
that is very little. 

Practical Eesults a Test. — A good test of a re- 
ligious system is its practical results. " A tree is 
known by its fruits.^'' Christianity, says St. Cyprian, 
makes men better, chaste, gentle, honest. K'ow do men 
improve by leaving the Catholic Church? Are they not 
weeds thrown by the Pope over his garden wall, such 
as Maria Monk, Leahy, and Hogan? 

Do not the best minds and hearts of Protestantism 
return to the Catholic Church? The author of the 
scurrilous work we refer to has called England the 
stronghold of Protestantism. It was, and he does not 
know that the stronghold is capitulating. In 1885/ 
W. Gordon Gorman published a little book called '' Con- 
verts to Rome.^^ 

Eome's Recruits.— There a list of nearly 4,000 
English Protestants who had gone over to the Catholic 
Church during the 19th century was printed. There 
is hardly a single noble family that has not given one or 
more of its members to the Roman Catholic Church. 
To mention a few names at random, they are: — 

The Duke of Leeds, the Marquis of Bute, the 
Marquis of Ripon, the Earl of Abingdon, the Earl of 
Ashburnham, the Earl of Buchan, the Earl of Denbigh, 
the Earl of Dunraven, the Earl of Gainsborough, the 
Earl of Granard, the Earl of Orford, Lord Beaumont, 
Lord Braye, Lord North, grandson of the third Earl of 
Guilford, Lord Courtenay, of Christ College, Oxford, 
Lord Alexander Gordon Lennox, Sir George Bowyer, 



1 88 Sensational Slaiiders. 

Bart., D. C. L., of Oxford, Sir Vere Francis de Vere, 
Sir Charles Wolseley, the Hon. Edward Douglas, of 
Christ Church, Oxford, the Hon. and Kev. George 
Spencer, M. A., the Hon. Gilbert Chetwynd Talbot, 
D. D., of Christ Church, Oxford, Field-Marshal Sir J. 
Foster Fitzgerald, Arthur a Becket, Gilbert a Becket, 
Hugh Gladstone, a cousin of the Eight Hon. W. E. 
Gladstone, Edwin Dwyer Gray, M. P., proprietor of the 
Dublin Freeman^s Journal, Charles Lister Mivart, 
brother of Professor St. George Mivart, F. E. S., Mrs. 
Butler (nee Thompson, painter of the ^^Eoll Call^^) 
Charles Halle, the pianist, Wybert Eousby, the actor, 
Charles Santley, the baritone. General Michael Bruce, 
of the Coldstream Guards, General Crispin, General 
Webber, and Major-General Stewart Allen. 

Also — Colonel David La Touche Colthurst, M. P., 
Colonel C. A. Goodfellow, E. E., Admiral George 
Courtney, Admiral Crispin, Admiral Eobert Hall, 
Admiral Eussel, Henry Manners, F. E. S., Captain 
Granville AVood, E. ¥., Dr. C. Carter Blake, F. G. S., 
Dr. Eobert Clarke, M. E. C. S., Dr. Fowler, M. E. C. S., 
John Bridge Aspinall, Q. C, Isaac Butt, Q. C, M. P., 
J. A. Cook, barrister. Miss Emily Bowles, authoress, 
Thomas Cooper, journalist and author, James Grant, 
novelist, E. B. Knowles, son of Sheridan Knowles, 
John Oxenford, poet, dramatic author, and critic of the 
London Times, Coventry Patmore, the poet, Adelaide 
Anne Procter, W. Clement Scott, Aubrey de Vere, the 
poet. Harold Kyrle Bellew, the actor, Eev. George 
Bampton, Eev. J. C. M. Bellew, the celebrated elocu- 
tionist. Dr. Newman, Cardinal Manning, the Duchess of 
Argyle, the Dowager Duchess of Athole, lady-in-wait- 
ing to her majesty the Queen, the Dowager Duchess of 
Buccleuch, the Duchess of Hamilton, the Duchess of 



Se^isational Slanders, 189 

Newcastle, the Marchioness of Lothian, the Marchioness 
of Queensbury, the Countess of Clare, the Countess of 
Kenmare, the Countess of Orford, the Lady Beaumont, 
the Lady Arundell of Wardour, Lady Evelyne Bertie, 
Lady Gray, and Lady Sussex Lennox. 

In addition there are numbers of the brightest intellects 
of the universities and a long list of ladies belonging to 
the first families in the land. 

Voices of Distinguished Co2s:verts. — And now 
listen to Monsignor Preston, a convert of the time of Dr. 
Forbes; writing in the " Forum/' of Feb., 1888, he says: — 

'' I may add only a few words as to my experience of 
the Catholic Church from my practical knowledge of 
her. She can be judged justly only from within. I 
had learned to appreciate and admire the Church from 
her exterior and the objective proofs of her divine 
mission. ... When I entered I found much more 
than I had ever hoped to find. I found a system so well 
adapted to my spiritual needs that this experience alone 
would have convinced me of its divinity. I found the 
supernatural without any loss of the natural. ... I 
found. . . great natural gifts, learning and culture, 
such as I had not seen before, were all around me. . . 
Yet in all such souls there was the absence of self- 
consciousness, and there appeared the attractive fruit of 
long mental and moral discipline. . . I had lived 
among Protestants of piety and refinement; but the 
Catholic Church presented me with a much higher life. 
. . . The great virtues which I had always admired 
the most, humility, purity, and charity, were around me 
like the fruits of the heavenly grace for which my soul 
thirsted. To say the least, life would have been worth 
living were it only to see and know that which has been 
my happy experience/^ 



190 Sensational Slanders, 

Dk. Newman. — The fame of the Very Kev. Dr. 
Newman (now Cardinal) has travelled throughout the 
world. His virtues and his genius are unquestioned. 
Here is his testimony to the purity of the Catholic hier- 
archy. In a postscript appended to the fourth edition 
of his '^Letter to the Duke of Norfolk/^ issued in 
Aprils 1875^ in answer to a remark of Mr. Gladstone^ 
Dr. I)]"ewman wrote: — 

^^From the day that I became a Catholic to this day^ 
now close upon 30 years^ I have never had a moment's 
misgiving that the Communion of Eome is that Church 
which the Apostles set up at Pentecost^ which alone has 
the adoption of sons^ and the glory^ and the covenants^ 
and the revealed law, and the service of God^ and the 
promises^ and in which the Anglican Communion, 
whatever its merits and demerits, whatever the great 
excellence of individuals in it, has, as such, no part. 
Nor have I ever for a moment hesitated in my convic- 
tion, since 1845, that it was my clear duty to join that 
Catholic Church, as I did then join it, which in my 
conscience I felt to be divine. . . . Never for a moment 
have I wished myself back.^^ 

The illustrious Cardinal Manning, another convert, 
has written in the same strain. Is it conceivable that 
high-minded, fearless men like the latter and those 
mentioned before in Mr. Gorman^s book, would tolerate 
for an instant the unspeakable wickedness ^^universally 
practised ^^ (according to the ministerial crusader) by 
Catholics? The silence of these thousands of recruits 
would be a greater marvel than the atrocities themselves. 
The monstrous credulity of the author himself is appal- 
ling; his story of the " Blessed Creatures ^^ and ecclesi- 
astical seminaries can come only from a diseased brain. 
Garbled Extracts. — His failure to verify citations 



Sensational Slanders. 191 

is equally remarkable. He attempts to quote St. 
Alphonsus Liguori, but garbles his meaning in every 
case^ for instance, with regard to hearing Mass on Sun- 
days, to the petty thefts of servants, to cursing and 
swearing, and occasions of sin. If he could only have 
the grace to study a text-book of moral theology — such 
as Lemkuhl, Sabetti, or Gury — he would be filled with 
admiration at the consummate learning, the zeal for 
souls, the prudence and wisdom displayed throughout. 

If the laws of the Church and the exhortations of 
theologians be observed nothing can be conceived more 
conducive to spiritual progress than sacramental confes- 
sion. Let the reader consult Sabetti, p. 646, and Gury 
XL, page 276. 

In Catholic Days. — The Eev. Father Balmez, in 
comparing the effects of Protestantism and Catholicity 
on the civilization of Europe, says: — 

^^ Where Christianity has not existed the people have 
been the victims of a small number, whose disdains and 
insults have been the only recompense of their labors. 
. . . . Observe the grand phases of European society 
at the time when Catholicism exclusively predominated. 
With various forms, distinct origins, different inclina- 
tions, they all follow the same course; all tend to favor 
the cause of the multitude; whatever has this for its aim 
endures: whatever has not, perishes. Whence comes 
it that this was not the case in other countries? .... 
Let those who represent Catholicism as the enemy of the 
people point out to us a single doctrine of the Church 
sanctioning the abuses under which the people were suf- 
fering, or the injustice which oppressed them. Let 
them show us whether, at the commencement of the 
16th century, when Europe was under the exclusive 
domination of the Catholic religion, the people were 



192 Sensational Slanders, 

not as far advanced as they could be, considering the 
ordinary course of things." 

No one has yet taken up that challenge to come out 
victorious. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
Ministers Who have Erred, 

'"Look ok this Pijture and on this'' — A Partiai^ 
List of Protest^^t Clergyma:^^ who have 

GIVEN" SCAi^DAL — An ArGUMEKT EOR CLERICAL 

Celibacy— Brokei!^ Marriage Vows. 

We must preface this chapter with the remark that 
the tic qitoque argument is always an undesirable one; 
We are not aware that any Catholic writer has resorted 
to it, and as a matter of fact it is condemned by fair 
controversialists. The golden rule in the Church is 
'' charity towards all, malice towards none/' 

In introducing the tu qitoque argument here, there- 
fore, we claim to be original. We do not think it fair, 
however, that a certain class of our opponents should 
be allowed to iterate and reiterate the charo-e that the 
Catholic Church has had some bad priests, without being 
gently reminded that a great deal more can be said 
against their own side. In the strange book which we 
have referred to in the preceding chapter mention is. 
made of one or two priests who have sinnei. If that 
writer's researches could have enabled him to adduce 
more "^^ terrible examples," he would cheerfully have 
given them, without doubt. We do not claim that 
every priest is perfect — and is it not bad logic to argue 
that, because one or two apples on a tree are rotten, 
therefore the whole tree is rotten ? 



194 Ministei's who have Erred, 

Our acquaintance \\ith Protestant clergymen in 
different parts of the world has instilled respect for 
them as a body. We are not fanatical. We gladly pay 
our tribute of admiration to an order which possesses so 
many noble., virtuous^ learned men. And some of the 
noblest^ the most virtuous, the most learned, have finally 
embraced the Catholic religion. We would not for a 
moment insinuate that, because there are ministers who 
have grievously sinned, a body which has given to the 
world good citizens, good husbands, good fathers, should 
be sweepingly condemned. ^ 

No, our purpose is to show that clerical celibacy is 
more conducive to virtue than the married priesthood, 
and that in the latter state there are to be found a 
greater number of backsliders than in the former. The 
instances we give below clearly prove that there is more 
danger in a married ministry than in a celibate priest- 
hood, and that the commission of sin in the former creates 
a great scandal. Another notable fact — we have not 
jS'one outside of America for examples. If we 'gave 
instances from other Protestant countries the list would 
be interminable. Moreover, w^e have confined ourselves 
to the last few years. 

In January, 1888, great scandal was given by the fall 

of Bishop B , of the town of L , ten miles from 

L , Pa. A daily paper said: — 

" An old man, honored by the Christian denomina- 
tion of which he was a member with the highest. oflRce 
in its gift, and known hitherto as one whose life 
exemplified his pulpit teachings, has confessed a sin 
that made necessary his deposition from the office of 

clergyman and bishop. Eev. C B , seventy 

years old, many years identified wnth the Church, and 
for a generation at least one of the most venerated resi- 



Ministers who have Erred. 195 

dents of the town of L , stands before the community 

self- convicted of immorality. One redeeming feature 
in the sad affair is that the name of the unfortunate 
woman involved is kept out of the reach of those who 
revel in scandal. The ex-Bishop inherited his clerical 
oflBce almost. For generations the family of which he 
is a member has been prominent in the Church. He 
himself was a student of the Scriptures, apparently an 
earnest worker for the Christianizing of his fellow men, 
and since 1860 a Bishop. His father and grandfather 
were ministers. His fall is the sensation of the day in 

this region. Mr. B 's fellow laborers in the Church 

desired to deal v/ith him without harshness. His honored 
ancestry, his own services in the Churches behalf were 
remembered. But the cause of religion in general, the 
good repute of the denomination in general, left them 
but one resource. They deposed him from his clerical 
position and excommunicated him from fellowship.^^ 

In 1887 and 1888 the whole country was talking 

of the doiugs of the Rev. G S , of^ Minn. On 

Feb. 15, 1888, the following appeared in almost every 
journal of the country: — 

^' The story of the elopement of Eev. <x- S -, 

the pastor of the Methodist church here^, with Mrs. 

the wife of the editor of , theirflight to Europe, their 

pursuit by the irate scribe, their capture and pathetic 
parting in New York City, is still a matter of much in- 
terest here. For several months Mrs. has been in 

retirement, unwilling to receive the visits even of pro- 
fessed friends, and has never appeared upon the streets 

of J . Since her divorce she has been living with 

lier parents, who now keep her more secluded than ever. 
The divorced husband is still keeping his eyes on the 
movements of Mr. S ^. Hearing that he was in 



196 Ministers who have Erred. 

G y Mich., H prepared a handbill and dropped 



300 copies around him there. The citizens of G 

made the place to hot to hold S , and he departed 

to Illinois, where he met his wife and family and united 

with them again. Finding this out, Mr. H printed 

S ^s picture and a vigorous denunciation on the re- 
verse side of the G handbills, and flooded that part 

of the State with the new edition, of which he exul- 
tantly avows the authorship. It denounces S as a 

hypocrite, ' snivelling about the Saviour to attract the 

attention of women and to ruin them.' It relates S 's 

J experiences, charging him with whipping and at- 
tempting to poison his wife and embezzling the mission- 
ary funds of the church there. H intimates his in- 
tention to follow S up wherever he goes. 

The Kev. C. F. B , Pastor of the Methodist 

Episcopal Church in M- -, IST. J., was charged with 

criminally assaulting Miss. K ■ L , the daughter 

of a well to-do farmer in P , where B once re- 
sided, on the 10th of January, 1880. The trial, which 
took place on the 11th of January, 1880, developed a 
rather sensational episode. 

The Rev. W T. E , Pastor of the Methodist 

Episcopal Church in B , N. J., was charged with 

taking liberties with some lady members of his congre- 
gation, on March 24th, 1880. He pleaded guilty to the 
charges, and his resignation was accepted. 

The Rev. H. G. H , Pastor of the German Luth- 
eran Evangelical Church in W H , was charged 

with adultery, on February 3d, 1880. He pleaded guilty 
to the charges, and his resignation was accepted. 

The Rev. J. N. S , Pastors of the Presbyterian 

Church, G , was tried and found guilty of criminal 

relations with Miss L. P , on January 12th, 1879. Miss 



Ministers who have Erred, 197 

P was formerly a Sunday School teacher in his 

church and at the trial appeared against him. After 

being tried and found guilty. Pastor S quitted the 

County. 

The^Eev. W P , pastor of the S G B 

C-^^ in New York, was tried on January 20th, 

1880, on a charge of intimacy with H M , 

That was the third time the pastor was arraigned, and, 
strange to say, the charges were pigeon- holed. He was 
a married man of family, and at the trial his wife ap- 
peared against him. On his promise to abstain from 
such actions in the future, he was allowed to remain in 
his pastorate ! ! ! ! 

The Rev. A P , Pastor of S G Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, H Co., Conn., was com- 
mitted to the M County Jail on December 22d, 

1879, for 30 days, for lascivious carriage. He was 60 
years of age, and a man of family. Solne time previous 
to his arrest, he was preaching in a neighboring town, 
and while there made improper proposals to a young 
lady of his congregation. Brooding over this insult her 
mental troubles made the young lady a raving maniac. 
At the trial he barely escaped lynching. 

The Rev. E. S. F , Pastor of the U Church at 

X A , Mass., was charged, on November 21st? 

1879, with gross, immoral, and licentious conduct, 
falsehood, misrepresentation, deceit, and conduct un- 
worthy of a Christian Minister. These charges were 
made to the Committee of Fellowship, Ordination, and 
Discipline, of the Massachusetts Convention of Univer. 
salists. 

The Rev. M. T . Pastor of the M. E. Church in 

W H , N. J., was charged, on December 24th, 

1879, with slandering M — — D— - B , one of his 



198 Ministers who have Erred. 

Sunday School Teachers. He unsuccessfully tried to be- 
come a boarder at the home of Mrs. D B , and 

after being refused, was a constant visitor at their home, 
until he made indecent overtures to M . He was re- 
moved from the pastorate. 

The Eev. W. W. D , Pastor of theB— »S~ 

B Church, Boston, was arrested on August 19th, 

1880, for intimacy with Mrs. A T . Mrs. T— 

was also arrested. The most undeniable proofs of their 

guilt existed. Mrs. T ^s husband, with a few more 

friends, found Mrs. T and Pastor D undressed 

in Mrs. T 's room. He was tried, found guilty, and 

suspended from his pastorate. 

Bishop S , of Episcopal Diocese of N , was 

charged, on April 8th, 1880, with familiar intercourse 

with one of his domestics named '' G ,^^ Before 

coming to IST , he resided in P ^ and after vacat- 
ing his pastoral residence in the latter place the dead 
body of an infant was found in the ice house. The 
Coroner was summoned, and A S , another do- 
mestic in the Bishop^s employ, related the following 
story : — 

/' The Bishop kept three girls, one of whom was called 

* Gr .^ We all knew that he was intimate with G , 

and I informed the bishop^s wife, bnt all to no purpose. 

Months wore on and finally Bishop S sent G 

away, and told the remaining portion of his household 
that ' She got a new place.^ But she returned again, 
after a lapse of three weeks, and informed me that her 

baby was born, adding that Bishop S was the father 

of it.'^ 

The Rev. G B — — , of B , was tried, on 

March 6th, 1886, for slandering and annoying the wife 
of Judge A. A. P . Mrs. P swore that B 



Ministers who have Erred. 199 

made her numerous improper proposals, followed her U 
the watering places and on the streets, vainly trying to 
cajole her into surrendering her virtue. He also forged 
letters purporting to be written by her, which he tbreat- 
eued to make public, if Mrs. P should expose his guilt. 

The Eev. A. D. S , Pastor of St. L ^s Episco- 
pal Church, B . was prohibited from preaching or 

exercising any ministerial functions^, on January 24th, 
1886. He was previously in charge of a pastorate at H 

, N. S., and while there contracted a large amount 

of debts. Hence his suspension. The Bishop at H 

telegraphed the B clerical authorities to suspend 

S , adding that he spent the greater part of his 

H salary in buying presents for the ladies. Pastor 

S declined to pay the bills and returned to his 

home in England. 

The Eev. J. D. L , Pastor of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, W , N. Y., was charged, on January 

14th, 1880, with " unministerial conduct, and immoral 
practices *^ towards some lady members of his congrega- 
tion. He was a married man and had four children, 
but always displayed a strong liking for " kissing the 
ladies/^ He was tried by a conference of Methodist, 

clergymen, anil Mrs. E C , Mrs. B. H. W , 

and Miss C W appeared against him. They 

swore that Pastor L often followed them to their 

homes and kissed them by force. 

The Rev. H A. C , Pastor of the Methodist 

Episcopal Church at T , near S , N. Y., was 

charged, on January 13th, 1880, with intimacy with a 
young girl named McC . The trial had to be aban- 
doned, as the Pastor^s friends claimed he was hopelessly 

insane. His intimacy with Miss McC continued 

over one year. 



200 Ministers who have Erred, 

The Eev. V W , Pastor of the ^ ' Bethlehem 

Mission^' in W , B , N. Y., was charged with 

undue intimacy with the wife of H — - — S , a well 

known B merchant, on December 24th, 1880. 

Among other cases in which ministers have given 
scandal in their Church, are the following: — 

At 3 o'clock, on May 9th, 1880, the northern Presby- 
tery of New York passed a resolution suspending the 

Eev. N"— W from his functions until he showed 

contrition and submission. The charges preferred 
against him were: 1st, That in public and private he 
bade defiance to the Presbytery; 2d, That he was s'uilty 
of a violation of the good order of the House of God in 

P , where he wanted to preach without being called 

©r invited to preach there; 3d, That he published a 
book, styled *^ Vindication/^ which threw scandal on 
the Church. 

The Rev. A. AV. J , Pastor of the B M. E. 

Church, T — — , S. I., was tried, on December 31st, 1878, 
for misappropriating funds belonging to the church of 
which he was also treasurer. The board of trustees gave 
him $300 to pay Mr. J. W— — an account of a mort- 
gage due on the church. Instead of paying Mr. W , 

the Pastor converted the church funds to his own use. 
He Avas removed from the pastorate. 

'J'he following was telegraphed to various newspapers 
from W , P-, under date of Jan. 21st, 1881: — 

" About six months ago the Kev. J J. B of 

P ^accepted a call to the Presbyterian church in 

F , this country. The many social qualities af the 

young minister soon made him a universal favorite with 
the members of his congregation, particularly the female 
portion, who thought there was no preacher so nice as 
Mr. B . Many church festivals were held, and 



Ministers zuJio have Erred. 201 

the pastor was the centre of attraction at all times and 
upon all occasions. After awhile it began to leak ont 

that Mr. B was neglecting his pastoral labors and 

paying too much attention to the female portion of the 
flock. These rumors, however, could not be substan- 
tiated at that time, and the elders refused to take any 
action, which they were urged to do by several members. 

Kev. S M. S— , of E L-^^ — and St. G 

N. Y., W , 0., married — Assault with intent to 

murder his wife, shot his wife, then himself, adultery 
with one of his congregation. 

Eev. E. S -, of M V , Ind., married — Adul- 
tery, betrayed and eloped with girl of 17, deserted wife 
and children, embezzlement of Church funds (1878.) 

Eev. J. M. S , of A — - — ,1 immoralities with 

little girls at his asylum school, assault on 8 year old 
girl, none of the girls more than 15 (1876). 

Eev^ C. T , of I and B , Wis., married 

girl— only 15 years old. 

Eev. A ^T , of E , 111., and N Y, 

married — Adultery, seduced Mrs. C , robbed her. 

deserted his Avife, said in court, ^' We all do such things. 
more or less y^ 5 years in Sing Sing (1881). 

A Catholic priest would not be allowed to dabble in 
stock gambling. There is no such restriction upon a 
Protestant minister. Although the minister in the fol- 
lowing case was guilty of no crime, yet his conduct is 
not edifying in a minister of the Gospel, who should 
keep clear of stock brokers. The following report 
was in all the New York papers of Jan. 14th, 1888 : — 

^^The Eev. C H , of J ^C , who is said 

to have lost largely in speculation through the firm with 
which Broker S , who recently failed, was con- 
nected, has brought suit to restrain the Stock Exchange 



202 Ministers who have Erred. 

from using the proceeds of the sale of S ^s seat 

(which brought $18,000) from paying out the money. 

*' In his complaint Mr. H alleges that on January 

3d he obtained a judgment against S for $29, 904. 

15, an execution being issued on that day. It was not 

satisfied, because S lived in J C and had no 

property in N Y . Mr. li avers that on De- 
cember 29tli, 1887, w^hen S failed, he asked the 

Committee on Admissions to sell his seat, and that it 
was sold. 

'* Mr. H claims that all of S 's Stock Exchange 

debts do not amount to over $12,000, that his seat in 
the Exchange was worth $20,000, and that the claims of 
the persons who are made defendants in the suit did not 
arise from transactions in or through the Exchange, 
but, as he is informed and believes, are claims ^ for 

money borrowed by S and loaned to him by those 

outside the Exchange, and in no way connected with it/ 

" The plaintiff asks that a receiver be appointed ; that 
the defendants be made to account for all of his property 
received by any of them for the sale of his seat, and 
that plaintiff ^s costs and disbursements be paid in pref- 
erence to those of the defendants. "" 

CASES SUMMARIZED. 

We could easily fill another work, nay several w^orks, 
with examples similar to the above, We cannot afford 
to do more than summarize a few : — 

The Eev. E , K. A , a married man, of T 

and B E. I., Mass,, and Ohio— adultery, (1878). 

Rev. Mr. A , a married man of Cincinnati, 0.— 

Adultery and drunkenness (1878). 

Rev. J. S. A (alias J. S. C ), of W and 

C City, Iowa, married— Adultery ; betrayed the 



M misters who have Erred. 203 

wife of D. 0. H , eloped^ deserted wife and children 

(1880). 

Rev. M E. A , of F and K , Iowa- 
Adultery, betrayed Mrs. K N (]881). 

Rev. T B. B , of P -, married — Adultery, 

betrayed L Y , a deacon's daughter (1876). 

Rev. AV. B. B , of H Mo., married— Adultery, 

betrayal, (1876). 

Rev. W. B. B , of V , Ky. — assault on girl ten 

years old, expelled from the Church (1878). 

Rev. M B , of F , Mich.— assault on 

A F , ten years old (1878). 

Rev. W. H. B , of New York City — assault on 

young woman of his congregation, resigned (1878). 

Rev. Professor W F. B , of I , Ind., and 

St. L , Mo.— Betrayal of Miss C- E. V- 

(was President of College) (1878.) 

Rev. M. B , of B , E. D.— Adultery, betrayal 

of servant girl (1878). 

Rev. G B , of C , N. Y., married— Adul- 
tery, elopement with Mr. S 's wife, deserted his own 

wife and children, general swindling, over $7000, forgery 
(1878). 

Rev. E. L. B— , of W , Iowa, and C M • 

R , and , M ., married— Betrayed wife of 

Mr. P— — and eloped with her, deserting wife and four 
children, sent to State Prison (1879). 

Rev. Mr. C. B -, of J , Micl#, married — Adul- 
tery, deserted his wife and eloped with one of his con- 
gregation (1880). 

Rev. A. B. B . of L , Kan., married — Adul- 
tery, Bigamy, deserted wife, embezzlement (1880). 

Rev. P. H. B — ^-, of B , N. Y— assault on two 

young girls (1876). 



204 Ministers who have Erred. 

Key. T B ^ of various churches in I , came 

from L , England, married — Adultery, betrayed 

L C , deserted wife and children, charged with 

inhuman cruelty to wife and children (1881). 

Rev. Mr. B , of S County, Mo., married — 

adultery, betrayal of ^ 13 years old (1882). 

Rev. W. S. C , of FI- , 111., married — Adultery, 

with females of deacon^s family (1877). 

Rev. J. M. C , of L , Mass., married — Bigamy 

(1878). 

Rev. S C. C , of St. L , 'Mo.— assault on 

Miss C C , 13 years old, and on other girls 

(1878). 

Rev. E. L. C Bigamy, forgery, swindling (1878). 

Rev. A C — — , of J , Iowa, 70 years old — 

assault on A ~ A. C , 13 years old^ adultery (1878). 

Rev. C T. C -, of C , Va.— assault on I— 

T , 12 years old, assanlt on other girls (1880). 

Rev. T. H. C , of P and St. J -% Mich., 

married — Adultery, betrayal of Miss F C G 

(1880). 

Eev. D C , of H and S , N. Y./ 

married — Adultery, betrayal of A , servant 

girl (1881). 

Rev. H C , of T, N. Y., married, 70 years 

old — betrayal of a girl 11 years old (1879). 

Rev. G. M. D , of L , 111., married — Adultery, 

with Mrs. W. M. W- , discovered by his wife in church 

(1882). 

Rev. Mr. D , of Y City, 111., married — Adul- 
tery with three of his congregation (1878). 

Rev. Mr. D , of J County, Wis., 63 years old 

— assault on , adultery with others, sentence 6 years 

prison (1878). 



Ministers who have Erred. 205 

Rev. L D , of K , married — Adultery, de- 
serted wife and eloped with another minister's daughter 
(1878). 

Eev. P D , of N Y City, married- 
Deserted wife and family, adultery, eloped with one of 
his congregation. Miss M (1878). 

Rev. Dr^ J A . D , of N A , Ind., and 

M , Tenn., married — Adultery, betrayal of Miss L 

K , attempted suicide, deserted wdfe and chil- 
dren (1879). 

Rev. Wm. D , of Y and T , N. Y., married 

— Bigamy and adultery, deceived second wife by telling 
her his first wife was dead (1881). 

Rev. J. B. D , of P , married — Adultery, betray- 
al of one of congregation, immoral assaults on women 
(1882). 

Rev. J E , of P . 111., married — wdth two 

daughters and daughters-in law, adultery, and 

(1878). 

Rev. E H. E , of various churches in M— — 

and M , married — Adultery with married w^omen of 

congregation, arrested in pulpit while preaching (1882.) 

Rev. J. H. F , of H , Mo., married Adul- 
tery, bigamy, had several wives, gambling (1879). 

Rev. Wm. P. F , of I and P , N^. Y.,— 

Betrayal of Miss C W , adultery (1879). 

Rev. I. D. F , of B , N. J. — Immoral assault 

on wife of A. H (1880). 

Rev. M. F , of M and C , 111.— Tried to 

assault Miss M S- , committed assaults on several 

women (1882). 

Eev, J. S. G , of J — - C , K J., and H , 

TIL — Betrayal of a young sister, who committed suicide 
(1876). 



2o6 Ministers who have Erred. 

Rev. W. M. G , of Js^ , Ind.— C assault on a 

little girl (1880). 

liev. C. E. G , of A^ and B , Tex., married 

—Deserted wife and children, adultery, tried to commit 
bigamj^ charged with larceny (1882). 

Rev. H- A. H , of jM , 111., married — De- 
serted wife and family, and committed adultery many 
times (1878). 

Rev. J. H , of L and G , Iowa — Adultery, 

betrayed Miss E R ; J B , to whom she 

was betrothed, i^illed her, and then committed suicide, 
dying with her in his arms (1878). 

^Rev. H. R. H , of L- G— - and D , Ore.— 

Adultery with Mrs. A. C. H (1879). . 

Rev. H H -, of H— — -, ¥. J. — Familiarities 

with his servant girl, assaulted another woman (1880). 

Rev. C. R. H , of H •, K. J., married — De- 
serted wife and children, adultery, eloped with one of 
his congregation, Miss A (1880). 

Rev. II E. H , of B— - and W , K Y., 

married — , crimes, gross immorality with his , 

11 years old (1880). 

Rev. F M , of F , Md., married— Attempt 

to commit bigamy, deserting wife and children (1882). 

Rev. L. D. P , of C -, Ky., married— Deserted 

wife and children, adultery, betrayed and eloped with 
daughter of Rev. S. S -(1876). 

Rev. H. H. H , of N M , Conn— Betrayed 

and then murdered Miss M E. S (1878). 

Rev. J- A. H ,of M A , 0.— Bigamy, 

had three wives (1878). 

Rev. A H , of V , married — Adultery, 

with his (1878). 

Rev. J E. H , of St. L— , Mo., and R -, 



Ministers who have Em^ed, 207 

Mass.^ married — Bigamy, breach of promise, adultery, 
engaged to marry five of bis congregation (1881). 

Eev. Mr. H , of R , Va. — Murder, adultery, 

betrayed a young woman of his congregation, killed her 
to hide his crime (1882). 

Rev. C H , of R , Conn., married — De- 
serted sick wife and children, cruelty to wife, embezzled 
church funds, adultery, eloped with married woman of 
his congregation (1S82). 

Eev. C. A. K , of G , Ga. — Adulteries, betrayed 

a girl 13 )'ears old m church (1876). 

Rev. C. S. K , of B C— , Ida.— , 

adultery, betrayed niece, Mrs. H A. P (1881). 

Rev. Mr. K- — •, of L , Pa., married — Adultery^ 

betrayed, eloped with Miss C ls\ , embezzled 

church funds, deserted wife and children (1882). 

Rev. A. H. K •, of M Ind., married — Adultery, 

attempted to poison wife (1882). 

Rev. Mr. L -. of W , W. Va.— Attempt to 

assault a twelve year old girl (1882). 

Rev. J L , of A , Pa. — Adultery, 

assanlt on I — Miller, 13 years old (1882). 

Rev. S— . II. M-G , of A , 111., married — 

Adultery with Mrs. L P , murdered his wife, 14 

years in State Prison (1877). 

Bishop S M-C— — , of D — , Mich., 75 years old 

— , , long continued with Miss F ■ R 

14 years old, deposed by the House of Bishops (1878). 

Rev. H C. M , of G , K Y., and St. 

L- — • County, N. Y., married — Adultery, betrayal of 

M B. F , an invalid, had child, fled while under 

arrest, escape from justice, deserted wife and children* 
represented himself as unmarried and engaged to marry 
respectable lady (1878). 



2o8 Ministers who have Erred, 

Rev. J— H. M , of P ., Pa., and S A 

, Tex., married — Adultery for a year, assault on M 

R , caught by Avife (1878) 



Rev. J M , of B y 0. — Bigamy, seven wives 

(1879). 

Rev. S. S. M -, of B , Pa.— Adultery, betrayal, 

child by (1879). 

Rev. W. R. M N , of P , G County, 

Md., married — Deserted wife and children, adultery^ be- 
trayal of young woman of congregation (1879). 

Rev. Gr. F. M , of various churches in I and 

M . Swindling, obtaining money under false pre- 
tences, adultery, repeated many times in each place, se- 
duced six married women, drunkenness, lying, profanity, 
eloped with married woman (1881). 

Bishop , of N Y , Adultery (1878). 

Bishop , of ]Sr J , Adultery (1878). 

Rev. Dr. J. D. F , of B . Charged with libel 

upon Rev. T. B. C , sued for $40,000; also charged 

with fighting ; has written a book against Catholic 
Priesthood (1883). 

This person^s partial list contains, from 1876 to 1883^ 
2053 crimes charged against clergymen ; of this number 
no less than 1113 are crimes against v/omen. An analy 
sis of the list shows that, out of 870 erring clergymen 
only ^^ are Catholic priests, and of»these %% but 46 have 
been unchaste. 

After this we think our adversaries will see how gross- 
ly the Catholic preist has been slandered and how much 
may be said against the minister. 



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